Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

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Matthew B The Czech-born Karel Reisz did not direct many films, but this one (his first) finally gave a flavour of something authentic in its portrayal of the working-class. Filmed in crisp clean photography, and with a minimum of distracting camera trickery, the story takes us into a world of back streets, washing lines, cobbled streets, nosey neighbours, buses and bicycles. The locals frequent smoky pubs where bands play. They go fishing on the canal. They like to go to the pictures. They have broad regional accents. Some of them are still working in the same job that they had when they left school. British society has changed since the 1960s, but Reisz's film offers us a snapshot of how ordinary folk lived back then. Other aspects of the film differed from what audiences were used to seeing at the time. Here was a film that brought sex, marital infidelity, abortion and swearing into the movie theatre. Admittedly some of the content had to be toned down in 1960, but this was still something startling and new for many cinema-goers at the time. At the centre of the story is Arthur Seaton (Alfred Finney). Seaton is a cocky young man who works in a bicycle factory, and does not like it. His target is a thousand items a day, and he will do that and no more: "I could finish in half the time if I went like a bull," Arthur tells us, "but they'd only slash me wages, so they can get stuffed." Arthur has pitying contempt for "the poor beggars" that "got ground down before the war and never got over it". For him, work is a means to an end. "What I'm out for is a good time," he explains; "All the rest is propaganda." And a good time is what he has. He spends his weekends fishing with his friend, Bert (Norman Rossington), or boozing at his local. In an early scene, he gets drunk, and casually bumps into other customers, spilling beer on them, before tumbling down the steps of the pub. There is a grin on his face, which shows us that he enjoys making a spectacle of himself. There is little obvious reason to like our surly and selfish hero, but Albert Finney invests Arthur Seaton with a certain irresistible charm. This is helped by the fact that we see the world from his biased point of view. Seaton provides a narration for the film, and he expresses himself in a humorous and articulate manner. The other characters seem sheep-like and submissive. Only Arthur exudes a wonderful vitality and joy of life. They tell Arthur he needs to calm down, but he refuses to simply accept his place in the world. Still Arthur is no hero, and his actions are not in any way admirable. He fits into the 1960s tradition of Angry Young Men that began with Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger, but Arthur's anger against the system is mere petulance, and not a justifiable grievance against ill-treatment. He is trapped within the limits of his world, but he is not a figure to be pitied. Often he is the instigator of bad deeds. Arthur is not interested in fighting to improve conditions for his fellow workers. His defiance at work takes more timid forms – refusing to work harder than he needs to, playing pranks, and mouthing off – but not enough to get himself fired. In the last scene in the movie, Arthur throws a stone at the sign on the construction site. It is one final gesture of futile defiance. However he promises Doreen, "It won't be the last one I throw". I wrote a longer appreciation of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/saturday-night-and-sunday-morning-1960/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/18/23 Full Review Leaburn This film was really good 👍🏼 Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review William L I realize that the premise had its novelty in 1960 (with a generation that lacked the unity of the war years and instead saw it replaced with capitalistic optimization), but the premise of kitchen sink dramas as a whole is just so old hat by this point; young men acting out against the conditions that they find themselves in spans cultures the world over and countless generations, and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning does relatively little to differentiate itself from similar films made in the same vein, whether contemporary or otherwise. The exception is Finney, who gives off a sense of generally repressed rage and impotence to alter his condition (as well as a attitude that ultimately only reinforces his lot in life) with remarkable capability. Still, while the film may be a accurate representation of generational pains, it doesnt necessarily feel like a terrribly potent film when compared to others highly placed in the BFI Top 100 Films of the 20th century. (3/5) Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/16/20 Full Review vin w Essential.Finney and Fields are magnetic together. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/02/20 Full Review Audience Member Perfect in its depiction of the dreary expectations of life facing factory workers in the northern UK. To be stuck in a world with no choices --would make any man angry. Women had even less of an opportunity than men, but movies showing their hopelessness were still not on the horizon in 1960. We still look at everything through the eyes of the male in the story. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Albert Finney gives a nuanced performance. Decent writing. Almost held my attention the entire time. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/20/19 Full Review Read all reviews

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

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