Look Back in Anger

On the surface "Look Back in Anger" is a very bleak picture which I wouldn't think I would admire. I was not a big fan of "The Entertainer", another adaptation of a downbeat play by John Osborne. Osborne and director Tony Richardson should be thankful for the calibre of the performances of the principle actors here that have made this a worthwhile enterprise. For starters, Richard Burton as Jimmy Porter, angry open-market candy salesmen, is a revelation. It's not just in the sililoquies that he rails against his station in life that are akin to Shakespeare. Burton's eyes show all the rage and self-hatred. Mary Ure as Porter's long-suffering wife, Allison, quietly demonstrates the pain of loving someone who is incapable of love. Claire Bloom is excellent as Allison's no-nonsense friend Helena who despite her better judgement falls prey to the indescribable spell that Jimmy casts on women who should know better. Gary Raymond as Cliff, Jimmy's best friend, does commendable work here as well. Also noteworthy is Donald Pleasance as Hurst, the overbearing market inspector. This film could very well be a relic of the angry young man period of British film but holds up because of the quality of the acting.

I don't like old movies but These characters are so real. The story is compelling and the Richard Burton plays the ever man with his rage showing. We all have it. Set in the aftermath of WW2, I can relate as my little Empire here in the US has been in decline during the course of my life. Male Disposibility? Well, hopefully this couple can work things out.

This is interesting as a period piece. The interest is not, however, in the somewhat untypical and sometimes unbelievable personalities portrayed, as in the streets, the houses, the clothes and some of the attitudes depicted. For example the class warfare, racial attitudes, and the fact that both Porter's wife and her actress friend, for all their sense of superiority towards Porter and the lower orders, (Porter acts similarly, with his own reverse snobbery) both easily and unquestioningly assume the fifties' feminine roles of ironing and folding clothes, and making meals. The children's games and demeanor are also typical of the times portrayed.Both Porter and his wife are somewhat typical of their social class, although Porter is far more poetic in his verbal expression than anyone I ever knew back then, and far more emotional. He is domineering, controlling, and egotistical; he has a chip on his shoulder. His wife is unemotional, cold, snobbish, and unfeeling. It is no surprise that they don't get on.He is too self-centred and doesn't enquire as to his wife's thoughts and feelings; he is too busy describing his own state. He does see that his wife lacks any strong feelings of her own, is merely unthinkingly conventional, and is too easily swayed by others,especially her folks and her friend. She is unhappy and unloved by him, but is all too ready to run away from the situation, and have her unborn child aborted (she doesn't abort because the doctor indirectly warns her not to). She is unwilling even to go with her husband to see his dying "ma" although he tells her he needs her to.Porter is, like most of us I suspect, too willing to see his own imagined virtues and the weaknesses of others. This is good for the ego but very bad for human relations.In the end they each realize their own faults. He sees that he is actually "slightly satanic" for example, and overcritical, and she sees that she is too vulnerable, dependent, and emotionally undeveloped. It takes a tragic event to bring them together. Things work out quite well in the end; they seem to each learn something valuable but much of the dialogue is stinted and unconvincing. All actors and actresses do a good job with the material provided.

Received a brand new factory sealed tape. The film is amazing and very edgy in terms of plot and filming. Very happy with my purchase!

I watched this film while studying the play for a class I was teaching. I saw this, the first production and the 1989 films. They all are very different. McDowell gives a fairly good performance. The other reviews would have had me believe it was Oscar-worthy. Many of them say that this is one of his best works. He does not play Jimmy as abrasively as Branagh. I recommend reading the play first, then watching each of these, taking them as separate works of art by three very different actors. My favorite is Branagh, but some of my friends and many of my students liked McDowell.

What a great find for theatre lovers! A great production all round. Based on a Roundabout Production from the 1980's, I was glad to find it and didn't know it existed until found on Amazon.

This is Richard Burton at his angry-best.

Had read this dark play which was excellent - full of cutting, witty dialogue and complex characters. These actors brought it to life and did it proud. Flawless acting by all. A must for Richard Burton fans.

This is a review of the 2018 Region B2 Blu-ray from BFI. It provides a 4K scan from the original camera negative, and a remastered and restored soundtrack. The sound is pristine, the picture is very good but not totally blemish-free.However, it does allow you to see and admire Ossie Morris’s delicious black and white cinematography, with his clever and revealing use of light. Morris was prolific and successful, OSCAR-nominated three times (he won for ‘Fiddler on the Roof’~1971). Here, his camera captures vividly, scenes of urban street life, especially the market where anti-hero Jimmy works. And he carefully records every detail of the cramped, dingy little garret flat where Jimmy, wife Alison and their friend Cliff, live. Much of what is revealed here is by shadows and silhouettes ~ Jimmy infuriating everyone with his trumpet-playing, Alison when we first meet her, overlaid by shadows forming prison bars across her uneasily sleeping form.This 1959 film is the first major work directed by Tony Richardson, one of the mainstays of the British ‘New Wave’, which changed the look and feel of British cinema beyond all recognition in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These films were often referred to as ‘Kitchen Sink Dramas’ in recognition of their strong working class and domestic settings. The script was an adaptation of a 1956 play by John Osborne, who went on to become one of our greatest post-war playwrights. The play had been a considerable success, and spawned the term ‘angry young men’, used to describe Osborne and his contemporaries, who made angry, social-realist plays totally different from the warmly reassuring, escapist works that had appeared before ~ and are ridiculed in the film.There are significant differences between the play and film ~ Osborne sold the story rights but insisted on Richardson directing. The film contains a prolonged Jazz reference, and an effective racism sub-plot, besides, importantly, removing mild uncertainties about masculinity. Jimmy, played with force and fervour by Richard Burton, is a bitter, vitriolic, brutish misogynist, but he is confident in his sexuality.The film explores some of the preoccupations of the time. End of Empire, Britain’s place in the world, and the beginnings of Commonwealth immigration are considered through the history of Alison’s middle class family, and the arrival of Kapoor, the Indian trader, in the market. Class differences (one of Richardson’s favourite topics) are exhaustively analysed through Jimmy’s relationships and strident tirades. The role of women fares less well.This is a powerfully acted 4-hander, with Burton at the top of his game. But Jimmy is impossible to like or empathise with. And university-educated, why does he run a sweet stall? Alison is a mystery ~ why is she here at all? With themes of blame, responsibility and regret, this film is a hard watch ~ brilliant, but emphatically not for the faint-hearted!

Although still a good film I couldn't quite award it 4 stars since Richard Burton is a bit all over the place. Apart from an inconsistent accent, his outbursts of rage, which constitute the essential part of this drama ,very often lapse into the purely histrionic, which undercuts the impact of his performance. That's not to say that he is at all bad, but simply that a little goes a long way. The script is very good and the two women go a long way to compensate for the excesses of Burton. It is the first and one of the best known of the "kitchen sink" dramas, and deserves its fame even after more than 50 years. It may not be at the top of the list, but for anyone interested in this genre it certainly holds its own against a lot of the competition.

A lovely vignette of a time of great change in life and cinema

This is an excellent, emotional and passionate film with wonderful acting and a real classic. If you can stand the nitty gritty of life this film is for you.

I love Richard Burton and this adaptation of the play did not disappoint. He can play emotional turbulance like no-one else. Only a celt could do it that well. Loved it.