Look Back in Anger – Film Review
Tony Richardson's Kitchen Sink Film of John Osbourne's Realist Play
Richardson's hard-hitting 1959 screen version of Osbourne's infamous play signaled the beginning of social realism and the angry young man in British film.
Look Back in Anger was made in 1959 by Tony Richardson, who, along with directors such as Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson, was a leading exponent of the Free Cinema movement; a precursor to social realism*. Look Back in Anger was adapted from John Osbourne's play, which Richardson had already directed for the stage at The Royal Court, before he transferred it to film. To modern viewers, the fact Look Back in Anger was adapted from a play seems obvious. The screenplay, heavy with verbose dialogue, is overly theatrical, and the action is limited to a small number of sets. However, at the time the film was released, it was heralded as a new kind of realist drama. One of the first “kitchen sink” social dramas. This phrase was originally used to describe realist painters who chose to paint ordinary objects, but with Look Back in Anger it applies to the depiction of the ordinary, everyday life of the working class on screen. This is why the audiences, unaccustomed to seeing working class life represented in films, were prepared to accept these characters as real.
Look Back in Anger: Synopsis (Contains Spoilers)
Jimmy Porter is the working class bred, university educated angry young man of Look Back in Anger. His unstable marriage to upper class Alison is the cause of much friction. They live in a small rented flat with Cliff, who runs a sweet stall with Jimmy at the local market. Cliff acts as a kind of mediator between his friends, just about managing to smooth things over, until Helena, an old friend of Alison's comes to stay. Helena and Jimmy are openly hostile to each other, causing relationships between all the characters to become very strained. Alison cannot even find the right words or the right time to tell Jimmy that she is pregnant. Eventually, on Helena's advice, Alison leaves Jimmy and goes home to her parents. This turnaround causes Jimmy and Helena to embark on an affair, much to the (unvoiced) disapproval of Cliff. Eventually Cliff decides to leave and set up on his own. Alison returns and the guilt-ridden Helena ends her affair with Jimmy. Alison reveals she has had a miscarriage, and in a moving and eloquent final soliloquy she forces Jimmy to recognize his own shortcomings, eliciting a sympathetic response from him for the first time in the whole film.
Starring Richard Burton and Mary Ure
Richard Burton took on the cruel and unyielding role of Jimmy Porter in the film. He was criticized as being too mature, stable and assured to play the confused and vulnerable youth, but this repudiates what Burton brought to the role. He is a charismatic actor who demands attention. He captured the domineering sexual power of Jimmy Porter, and the ingrained mixture of deep rooted emotions that emerge in what John Osbourne described as Jimmy's “cheerful malice”.
Mary Ure, as Alison, delivered a wealth of emotion with every silence. Her world weary response to Jimmy's abuse showed how worn down she was. Her silence is not because she's immune to his outbursts, but because she's desperate for peace. Mary Ure was the original actress in The Royal Court productions of Look Back in Anger, and her experience comes through in her performance.
David Tennant and Anne-Marie Duff Tackle Look Back in Anger
Look Back in Anger was recently reprised (in part) on stage at The Royal Court, in a 50th anniversary tribute. Current Dr Who star David Tennant was Jimmy Porter and Anne-Marie Duff of TVs Shameless fame played Alison. The play, and by extension the film, still have much to say about the state of the nation; the overprivileged, the under educated, the cramped and squalid living conditions forced upon young people. So whilst the audience may not have gasped in surprise, as was reputed to have happened 50 years ago, at the sight of Alison's ironing board (audiences were used to stage sets of old country houses), Jimmy's anti-establishment rants and hatred of middle-class complacency still rang as true today as they did 50 years ago.
*For more information on Kitchen Sink Dramas, Free Cinema and the Angry Young Man, this article on Social Realism in British Film may be of interest.
