Political Environment in Britain in Movies - Essay Example

? BRITISH CINEMA By Location Introduction The content of media is a reflection of the society; this assertionis true. In most cases the films, the plays, the literary works are inspired by the occurrences in the society, which in turn forms the basis of themes used in the artistic. The paper discusses two videos, which puts into perspective the political environment that exists in the Britain. Renowned director Ken Loch directs the videos. They include Riff-Raff (1990) and Raining Stone (1993). The videos balance the use of fiction and non-fiction in order to achieve social realism. The society is always grappling with a lot challenges such as poverty, poor governance, disasters and such challenges dictates the context within which the films are made with the aim that they will of making the society better (Ashby & Andrew, 2000). Whenever the audience watches the films on various themes there conscious is pricked, and they get empowered through such films to fight for a better society. The influence of film to the society cannot be overlooked. This begs the need for the directors and all other stakeholders in the film industry to up their game and ensure that their content is based on the realities that exist in the society with a view to making the society a better place to live in and exist. Synopsis of the films Loach directed, and Sally Hibbin produced the 1990 film Riff Raff. The main stars in the movie are Robert Carlyle and Rick Tomlinson. The movie was such a hit and won the coveted European Film Award in the year 1991. The character Stevie (Robert Carlyle) is having a rough time in London and decides to secure employment at a site as a builder. Stevie soon begins (Brunsdon, 2007) to make friend s at the building site; he meets Shem, Mo, and Larry, who offer him an empty makeshift flat. Stevie later bumps into Susan (Emmer McCourt) an upcoming actor and musician. Stevie begins to help Susan to get some support from his workmates at the site. With time, Stevie and Susan move in together, and they appear to be happy at least for some time. Larry appears to be a gallant critique of the Conservative Party and Margret Thatcher, who is the Prime minister at the time. Larry seems to be on his own; the rest of the crew are not interested in discussing any political affairs. To them, politics do not help their situation. At the workplace, the crew is working under despicable conditions (Blandford, 2007). Workers safety is not the priority of the management; people have to endure longer working hours on a meager pay. Moreover, there is no job security; the workers are dismissed on baseless grounds. In the meantime, Susan's relationship with Stevie hit a dead end and the two-part ways. The workers can no longer take the harsh condition at the workplace, especially after the sudden death of their colleague who falls off from the rooftop. Stevie leads his colleagues to setting up the building of fire. In Raining Stones (1993), Ken Loach puts into perspective a story of a devoted man who despite coming from a humble background is very proud. He is Bob; he is determined against all odds to find his little girl an expensive dress as a gift for her First Communion. This, however, gets him into trouble; he resorts to desperate measures in a bid to raise the money to secure for her daughter the dress. His desperate pursuit of money puts casts him on the bad light and compromises his image in the society (Bazin, 2005). This movie is prejudging by the fact that it won the Jury Prize in its maiden year in 19993 at the “Cannes Film Festival. Socio-historical and institutional Background of the films The films do not concentrate on the visual style so much but rather on the challenges that the society is grappling with. Such social issues include housing problems, poverty, bad governance, and disasters. In the 1960s and 1970s Britain was not a democratized society as it is today. So most of the films produced around that time targeted to sensitize the society against such odds. Margret Thatcher, in particular, was ruled with an iron fist. She never tolerated divergent opinion hence democracy was on trial during her reign. Loach points out to this fact in his Film Riff-Raff. In the film Riff-Raff, Larry comes out strongly in opposition of thatcher’s way of leadership (Caughie, 2000). Surprisingly enough, the rest of his colleagues appears not interested in discussing any political matters. This shows that the society at the time was not empowered to fight for their right and claim leadership and thriving of political institutions to safeguard democracy. It also points out that people were very ignorant and never really understood the contribution of politics to their daily lives. Politics play an integral role in the lives of citizens. With good political environment that upholds democracy, there is room for the citizens to express their opinion through the ballot. This implies that they are able to get the best leaders who will come with sound policies that can eradicate societal ills such as poverty and unemployment. Margaret Thatcher, for instance, rode to power against all odds on the platform that she would overhaul the economy of Britain for the better. Her approach to managing economic issues in Britain was quite controversial. She was a monetarist who advocated for the need to fight inflation. Caunce (2004) asserts that the unilateral way in which she handled the economy made the economy of Britain to dwindle. The unemployment levels doubled under her reign consequently leading to high-poverty levels. In order to fight inflation, she opted to increase the interest rates, which led to less money supply in the economy. The result of this is that Britain became less attractive in terms of investment because the cost of acquiring capital was exorbitant owing to the huge cost of financing loans (Chibnall & Murphy 2009). More investors skipped Britain resulting to loss of jobs. The high unemployment rates resulted to several civil strikes in the country against the rule of Thatcher. Despite her huge progress in other fronts such as reducing down public debt and improving housing most of her policies were out of touch with issues affecting ordinary households. She came up with some controversial laws that made her to be loathed by workers. According to Cooke (2003), she came up with laws that crippled trade unions. People were not going on strike to fight for better pay; they were striking because they could not get jobs, and life was becoming impossible. In 1979, for instance, the unemployment level was at 5.3% meaning that a whopping 3 million British were out of employment and hence dependency ratio was high. Lady Thatcher, therefore, failed to salvage Britain from unemployment and poverty. The political environment, therefore, inspires the two films, the Riff-Raff and the raining Stones during the reign of Thatcher. She was at the helm of the country for 11 years as the Prime Minister. She is the only woman who has ever held this position in Britain History. The timing of the movies confirms that their plot is modeled around Thatcher's rule. Riff-Raff was produced in 1990 while the Raining Stones was produced in 1993. Loach, who directed these films does not miss the point he uses fiction and non-fiction styles to bring out the evils in society that existed around Thatcher’s rule. In the film, Raining Stones, Bob shows the face of poverty that millions of British are undergoing. Sad enough, poverty makes him to betray his religious beliefs and poverty values. He is painted out as a desperate man who cannot afford to get a decent dress for her daughter. He wishes that he is in apposition to get her a gift for her First Communion against all odds, and this leads him into stealing. According to Dave (2006), this shows that with poverty in the society, the levels of crime are definitely going to drop. In order to fight crime in the society the government of the day must make sure that they are able to improve economic performance so that there is more industry that can absorb the population in meaningful employment. On the other hand, the movie Riff Raff shows how people are working under bad working conditions with no regard whatsoever to safety. In the film, Stevie's colleagues die by falling off the roof of the building, which was under construction. This shows that the employees provided with safety measures to safeguard them against the safety risk. Building site is unsafe people are successful to harm from falling objects, dusts, falling off from the top of the building, and exposure to toxic chemical substances. Falsetto (2009) says that it is therefore, critical that workers at a construction site are offered protective gears, helmets, and adequate compensation progamme put in place in case one loses their lives in the ordinary cause of conducting their duties at the construction site. The video shows that the employees always fail in a bid to offer a good working environment for the employees. The employees have a right to better working conditions, better, salaries, and objective appraisal. It is upon the government to come up with better laws that can safeguard the interest of the employees. Analysis The two British Films directed by Ken Loach casts a rather sorry state of the affairs at Britain. It is worth noting that the government must come up with deliberate measures to ensure that it uphold the interest of the citizens at the expense of their own selfish gains (Friedman, 2003). The government must be held to account by the electorate who gives them the positions of power. The only critical way to achieving this goal is by making opening the democratic space so that people have a voice through the ballot to elect good leaders. Loach works shows aguish against the systems that are operating in the society. Politics play an integral role in the lives of citizens. According to (Fuller, 2008), with good political environment that upholds democracy; there is room for the citizens to express their opinion through the ballot. This implies that they are able to get the best leaders who will come with sound policies that can eradicate societal ills such as poverty and unemployment. In the film Riff-Raff, it is apparent that the government of the day has not prioritized service delivery to the people. All they are doing is to amass wealth at the expense of the citizens. In the film, the construction site where Stevie is working used to be a hospital, and it is currently a private property. This is unacceptable; the government should not seat back and watch public property being taken away by selfish individuals (Hall, 2007). The hospital in a basic need to the society, the more access the people have to health facility the better instead of building more health facilities such as social amenities; the government official reluctantly watches as public property is taken away. In the same film, Riff-Raff, there is an apparent lack of better working conditions. The government needs to have a robust labor department so that workers are accorded better working conditions. The other critical service that is offered by the department is engagement in collective bargaining with labor unions during labor strikes. Government workers such as teachers or doctors have labor unions, which champion for their right. It is expected that the government through a labor union engage with these unions through collective bargaining in order to push for a better term of services to public workers. Most public employees feel safe when they are in labor unions because they believe that the union has the legal voice and capacity to advocate on their issues. Hayward (2004) says that Labor unions are not meant to fight the management as always presumed, but they are supposed to engage the management based on collective bargaining to champion for among others better pay, increased allowances, and better working conditions for their employees. Department of labor offers several services to both employees and employers. The department of labor is charged with the noble task of streamlining the operations of various organizations within the public sector and the private sector. The labor department takes care of several issues that touch on the welfare of public workers. They need to ensure that public workers be remunerated appropriately and offered good working condition that empowers them to be productive (Higson, 2006). The paper, therefore, puts into perspective the five major services that the department of labor offers to both the employees and employers in the public and private sector. The other important service offered by human-resource department is designing remuneration and allowances for all the public servants. According to Higson (2006), the department should streamline its remuneration packages to be consistent with the industry packages so that it remains attractive. This is the only way through which the department can attract and maintain the workforce at the various government departments besides reducing disciplinary cases at the department. The Film Raining Stones shows that when the society is poor, the crime rates go up. This is evident in Sam’s case poverty pushes him to the wall to an extent that he betrays his values by stealing to buy her daughter a present. The government needs to always make deliberate attempts to ensure that the citizens have better living standards. Higson (2006) says that this can be achieved through expanding both the private and the public sector to accommodate more people in meaningful employment. In the film, Riff-Raff in an apparent swipe at Margret Thatcher the government is not doing enough to provide better livings standards to its citizen. Despite her huge progress in other fronts such as reducing down public debt and improving housing most of her policies were out of touch with issues affecting ordinary households. She came up with some controversial laws that made her to be loathed by workers. She came up with laws that crippled trade unions. People were not going on strike to fight for better pay; they were striking because they could not get jobs, and life was becoming impossible. Summary The two films have explored and analyzed the expansion and development of social realism in United Kingdom in details. It is during the same period that the globe was hit by recession; unemployment levels were on the rise; poverty levels increased, and inflation as well. Stevie a character in the film Riff-Raff; he bore the brunt of the recession at the time. The character Stevie (Robert Carlyle) is having a rough time in London and decides to secure employment at a site as a builder. Stevie soon begins to make friends at the building site; he meets Shem, Mo, and Larry, who offer him an empty makeshift flat to stay in. The society is always grappling with a lot challenges such as poverty, poor governance, disasters and such challenges dictates the context within which the films are made with the aim that they will of making the society better. Whenever the audience watches the films on various themes, their conscious is pricked, they be empowered through such films to fight for a better society. The paper discusses two videos, which puts into perspective the political environment that exists in the Britain. Renowned director Ken Loch directs the videos. They include Riff-Raff (1990) and Raining Stone (1993). The videos balance the use of fiction and non-fiction in order to achieve social realism. The films do not concentrate on the visual style so much but rather on the challenges that the society is grappling with. Such social issues include housing problems, poverty, bad governance, and disasters. In the 1960s and 1970s Britain was not a democratized society as it is today. So most of the films produced around that time targeted to sensitize the society against such odds. Margret Thatcher in a particular was ruled with an iron fist. She never tolerated divergent opinion hence democracy was on trial during her reign. Loach points out to this fact in his Film Riff-Raff. In the film Riff-Raff, Larry comes out strongly in opposition of thatcher’s way of leadership. Surprisingly enough, the rest of his colleagues appears not interested in discussing any political matters. This shows that the society at the time was not empowered to fight for their right and claim leadership and thriving of political institutions to safeguard democracy. It also points out that people were very ignorant and never really understood the contribution of politics to their daily lives. Loach projects the issues in the society in a coherent manner in his films. He is obviously against an authoritarian rule, which is apparent when Larry attacks Margret Thatcher’s style of leadership. Larry appears to be a gallant critique of the Conservative Party and Margret Thatcher, who is the Prime mister at the time. Larry seems to be on his own; the rest of the crew is not interested in discussing any political affairs. To them, politics do not help their situation. This shows that the society at the time was not empowered to fight for their right and claim leadership and thriving of political institutions to safeguard democracy. It also points out that people were very ignorant and never really understood the contribution of politics to their daily lives. The influence of film to the society cannot be overlooked; this begs the need for the directors and all other stakeholders in the film industry to up their game and ensures that their content is based on the realities that exist in the society with a view to making the society a better place to live in and exist. References Ashby, J., and Andrew, H., 2000. British Cinema: Past and Present. London, Routledge. Bazin, A., 2005. What Is Cinema? London: University of California Press Ltd. Blandford, S., 2007. Film, Drama and the Break-Up of Britain. Bristol: Intellect Books. Brunsdon, C., 2007. London in Cinema: the Cinematic City Since 1945. London: BFI. Caughie, J., 2000. Television Drama: Realism, Modernism, and British Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Caunce, S., 2004. Relocating Brutishness. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Chibnall, S., and Murphy, R., 2009. British Crime Cinema. London: Routledge. Cooke, L., 2003. British Television Drama: A History. London: BFI Dave, P., 2006. Visions of England: Class and Culture in Contemporary Cinema. Oxford: BFI. Falsetto, M., 2009. Personal Visions; Conversations with Independent Film-Makers. London: Constable & Company Ltd. Friedman, L., 2003. British Cinema and Thatcherism: Fires Were Started. London: UCL Press Ltd. Fuller, G., 2008. Loach on Loach. London: Faber and Faber. Hall, S., 2007. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage. Hayward, A., 2004. Which Side Are You On?: Ken Loach and his Films. Bloomsbury Publishing, London. Higson, A., 2006. Dissolving Views: Key Writings on British Cinema. London: Wellington House. Read More