What is the movie Brassed Off about?
Brassed Off is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor. [2] The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit.
Where is brassed off filmed?
Filmed entirely on location in Yorkshire, Brassed Off is the story of a community struggling to survive when its chief industry is closed down. Personal and public dramas reveal the extraordinary resilience of the people and the instinct for survival which keeps their spirits up in the face of hardship.
Who are the actors in Brassed Off?
Mark Herman's award-winning comedy, starring Ewan McGregor, Pete Postlethwaite and Tara Fitzgerald. Filmed entirely on location in Yorkshire, Brassed Off is the story of a community struggling to survive when its chief industry is closed down.
What is the central image in brass off by William Blake?
The central image in "Brassed Off'' is that of a face: shiny, homely, dead serious. It is the face of a man who earnestly believes he is doing the most important thing in the world. The man's name is Danny, and he is the leader of a brass band made up of coal miners who work at a pit in Grimley, a Yorkshire mining town.
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Is the film Brassed Off based on a true story?
Mark Herman's Brassed Off was inspired by Grimethorpe colliery band's success in the National Brass Band championships at a time when the pit's 33,000 miners faced redundancy. The film provided a memorable portrayal of what can happen to a pit community when the jobs start to go.
Did Fitzgerald play flugelhorn in Brassed Off?
Tara Fitzgerald, actor When I got the part, I drove my neighbours mad because the first thing I did was hire a flugelhorn. I was playing the only female performer in the band and practised endlessly in the two months before shooting.
Did Brassed Off win any awards?
César Award for Best Forei...London Film Critics Circle Award for...German Film Award for Best Fo...Brassed Off/Awards
Who wrote Brassed Off?
Mark HermanBrassed Off / ScreenplayMark Herman is an English film director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Wikipedia
What pit was used in Brassed Off?
Brassed Off, which starred the late British acting legend Pete Postlethwaite, featured the fictional town of Grimley and was partly based on the closure of Grimethorpe's pit in 1993.
Who played the flugelhorn solo in Brassed Off?
Paul HughesTrack listingNo.TitleLength5."En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor" (Flugelhorn solo: Paul Hughes)4:046."Years of Coal"0:357."March of the Cobblers"3:098."There's More Important Things in Life"1:4716 more rows
What does Brassed mean?
: annoyed and unhappy. feeling a bit brassed off.
How long is the film Brassed Off?
1h 49mBrassed Off / Running time
Who played Gloria in Brassed Off?
Tara FitzgeraldBrassed Off (1996) - Tara Fitzgerald as Gloria - IMDb.
What year was Brassed Off set in?
[An] audacious, angry but oddly agreeable screed on the social evils of Thatcherism in 1992 Great Britain.
Where can I see Brassed Off?
Brassed Off, a comedy drama movie starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, and Ewan McGregor is available to stream now. Watch it on Pluto TV - It's Free TV or Prime Video on your Roku device.
Where can I watch Brassed Off in Australia?
Kayo Sports.Kayo from Telstra.Foxtel from Telstra.Main Event.Optus Sport.DAZN.
When did Brassed Off come out?
May 23, 1997 (USA)Brassed Off / Release date
What year was Brassed Off set in?
[An] audacious, angry but oddly agreeable screed on the social evils of Thatcherism in 1992 Great Britain.
Who directed Brassed Off?
User reviews151. Director is Mark Herman but the movie themes remind Ken Loach and its stories about people losing jobs but keeping their dignity... Basically everything is inspired by events that really took place over Margaret Thatcher Government (when the film is set).
Where can I see Brassed Off?
Brassed Off, a comedy drama movie starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, and Ewan McGregor is available to stream now. Watch it on Pluto TV - It's Free TV or Prime Video on your Roku device.
Storyline
In existence for a hundred years, Grimley Colliery Brass band is as old as the mine. But the miners are now deciding whether to fight to keep the pit open, and the future for town and band looks bleak.
Did you know
Unlike the other actors in the movie, Ewan McGregor knows how to play an instrument. He played the French horn when he was younger, which is an instrument with similar pitch to the Eb tenor horn his character plays in the movie.
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By what name was Brassed Off (1996) officially released in Canada in English?
Who played my father in the movie Grimethorpe?
Pete Postlethwaite, who was playing my father, took me down to Grimethorpe a week before filming to talk to locals and let them know this was their story. The miners were reticent at first.
Do colliery bands still perform today?
The colliery band we used still perform today. They’ve made albums and played at the White House. In the Halifax Piece Hall scene, where the band plays the Florentina March, my parents appear as extras. My dad loved the music so much we had it played at his funeral.
Who is the actor in Brassed Off?
It's funny, it's moving, it's brilliant: we look back at Brassed Off, starring the late, great Pete Postlethwaite...
Who plays Mr McKenzie in Brassed Off?
Perhaps the only one-dimensional cipher here is Stephen Moore (you might remember him as Kevin’s dad in Harry Enfield & Chums ), playing the colliery manager Mr McKenzie, insistent that he wants to keep the pit open, yet seen grinning on the way out once the result has been announced. I do get why his role is so narrow, though: the film’s at its least interesting when we peak behind the scenes of the mine management, and follow the inevitable irrelevance of Gloria’s feasibility study. Those moments are the only ones in Brassed Off I can live without.
Is Brassed Off a hard movie?
Be in no doubt: Brassed Off was and is a hard, hard film at its centre . No matter how much – a lot, as it happens – it’s able to make people laugh. And I’d argue that it’s the relationship between Danny and Phil that really elevates it to something extra-special.
Is Brassed Off a romantic comedy?
Bizarrely, Brassed Off was actually sold as a romantic comedy (!) by Miramax in the US, and to this day, the DVD cover highlights Ewan McGregor’s Andy and Tara Fitzgerald’s Gloria. In fact, the eager accompanying sales copy is worth citing:
Who plays Danny's son in Brassed Off?
The second outstanding performance you get in Brassed Off comes from Stephen Tomkinson, as Danny’s son, Phil.
Is Grimethorpe Colliery Band still going?
Actually, that’s not strictly true, because you can always hear it live. For perhaps the happy ending in the midst of all the Brassed Off story is that the real-life Grimethorpe Colliery Band, in spite of everything the community around it has had to suffer, is still going. And in fact, you can find a list of its upcoming appearances on its website, here.
What is the movie "Brassed Off" about?
The writer and director, Mark Herman, obviously believes the Tory energy decisions were inspired by the fact that coal miners voted Labour while nuclear power barons were Conservative.
What is the central image of Brassed Off?
Brassed Off. The central image in "Brassed Off'' is that of a face: shiny, homely, dead serious. It is the face of a man who earnestly believes he is doing the most important thing in the world. The man's name is Danny, and he is the leader of a brass band made up of coal miners who work at a pit in Grimley, a Yorkshire mining town.
Who was the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times?
There is not a moment in "Brassed Off'' when I did not believe Postlethwaite was a brass band leader--and a bloody good one. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
When was the coal mine closed?
It is 1992, and the colliery is about to be closed. The Conservative government made a decision some years earlier to replace coal with nuclear power as a source of fuel, and as a result some 140 pits, representing more than 200,000 miners' jobs, were declared redundant.
Overview
Brassed Off is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor.
The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit. The soundtrack for the film was provided by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the plot is based on Grimethorpe's own struggles against pi…
Context
The film is set ten years after the year-long strike in 1984–85 by the National Union of Mineworkers in Britain. Before the privatisation of British Coal, a wave of pit closures took place. Depleted of resources and in debt following the labour militancy of 1984–85, the miners were unable to continue a resistance against the policies of the government. Many had been in debt ever since the long strike, and were prepared to take redundancy money whilst it was on offer.
Plot
Gloria Mullins has been sent to her home town of Grimley to determine the profitability of the pit for the management of British Coal. She also plays the flugelhorn, and is allowed to play with the local brass band after playing Concierto de Aranjuez, affectionately known as “Orange Juice” by the characters, with them. The band is made up of miners from whom she must conceal her purpose. She renews a childhood romance with Andy Barrow, which soon leads to complications. Andy is …
Production
The film is set in "Grimley" in the mid-1990s, which is a thin veil for Grimethorpe, a mining village in South Yorkshire which had been named as the poorest village in Britain in 1994 by the European Union. The nearby areas of the Dearne Valley and the Hemsworth area were also identified as in need of serious aid. The soundtrack for the film was recorded by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, the story roughly reflects Grimethorpe Colliery Band's history, and the film was largely shot in Gri…
Reception
Brassed Off received an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Brassed Off combines inspiring drama with populist socioeconomics to create a film whose familiar outlines are filled in with genuine and surprisingly palpable emotion."
The film was one of Film Four Distributors first major releases and opened on 203 screens in th…
Stage adaptation
Paul Allen adapted Mark Herman's screenplay for the stage, the production premiering at the Crucible Theatre Sheffield on 17 March 1998, with music performed by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. The play transferred to the Royal National Theatre in June before embarking on a UK tour. In 2014 a new UK tour was mounted by the Touring Consortium Theatre Company, coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the miners' strike.
In popular culture
A sample of a monologue performed by the main character Danny (Pete Postlethwaite) is used in the opening of the song "Tubthumping", on the 1997 Chumbawamba album Tubthumper: "Truth is, I thought it mattered; I thought that music mattered. But does it bollocks! Not compared to how people matter".
See also
• BFI Top 100 British films