By Andy Fenwick, Worcester South CLP
Sorry We Missed You, the latest film from Ken Loach, follows in the same style as I, Daniel Blake, as an authentic working class scenario given a voice. These movies are classed by university professors as belonging to the social realism genre and have a history going back to the 1950s, in which the tone and accent of the working class is genuine. This was new portrayal of workers’ lives, rather than a working class stereotype, as was the case in the film In Which We Serve, 1941.
Stories based in reality
The emphasis, to underscore real working class lives by use of their regional tongue an example of language, is in Kes (1969) also by Ken Loach, in which a thick Nottingham working class accent is poured over the audience to base the story in reality. Compare this to Brassed Off (1996), in which Mark Herman’s use of a professional cast ensures that it hardly gets close to the accent of a Yorkshire mining village. A constant in the social realism movies is the bleakness; the genre convention is to portray a dark ending. There is no happy endings in Kes, as the kestrel is killed: a metaphor for the end of a young boy’s dreams. In Danial Blake the lead character dies of a heart attack and in Cathy Come Home (1966) the baby is snatched from the mother to be put into care.
Social realism is spread across a wide range of media and has a long history. Examples can be seen even in early twentieth century literature with Robert Tressell‘s Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1913)or Jack London’sThe People of the Abyss (1903) and it continued throughout the century, with painters and photographers documenting the depression of the 1930s.
Not adaptable to Hollywood
Unfortunately, some of the conventions of social realism result in its inability to capture an audience from the community that the film attempts to portray. Audiences want to be entertained and do not always want to be reminded of their far-from-perfect lives. The social realism style is not easily adapted to Hollywood, like Ken Loach’s Bread and Roses (2000), telling the story of striking office cleaners in Los Angeles. This had all the resources of a studio production but the box office takings were $533,479, compared to I Daniel Blake which Loach shot on location and has had revenues of $12.45m to date.
Loach is not the only film director to use social realism. An early example is Salt of the Earth (1954) an American film written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman and produced by Paul Jarrico. All three had been blacklisted over alleged involvement in communist politics. The film was one of the first US films to advance a feminist social and political point of view. Its plot centres on a long and difficult strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico, and it was proscribed from main cinema theatres. The only way to see it was via an underground audience of trade unionists, leftists, feminists or Mexican-Americans. This movie, however, was the architype for future social realism, with only five professional actors and the rest of the cast coming from the mining union community where it was shot. In the film, a court order prohibited the men from picketing, so the women take over the picketing with great success.
Embellishments from perceived truth
Authenticity is a cornerstone of social realism and any attempts to add fantasy is rejected by the genre’s collective constituency and any embellishments from a perceived truth are rejected. It is because of this convention that movies such as Pride and Made in Dagenham cannot be classed as social realism, because of the distortion of the truth. In Pride certain elements such as the NUM not accepting money from a gay group, suggesting that the strikers were homophobic, is a false portrayal and in Made in Dagenham, we are led to believe that a women living on a council estate sent her son to the same school as the son of Ford’s Chief Executive. These distortions of working class history are counter to the foundation to social realism. In these films we see the film maker distorting the story to make a political standpoint outside of the real story. These are enjoyable movies but do not adhere to the necessary authenticity.
A social realism film has a limited number of professional actors and other parts are played by the community the film is representing. The script structure has to be loose, to facilitate input from cast members and to reflect local language and idiom. The majority of scenes are shot on location, in chronological order and not in studio sets. The protagonists in social realism are flawed and are not super mortals and the story contains a central message of collectivism, not like the Hollywood “based on a true story” movie, where each character exudes the stereotypical ‘virtues’ of his class, positing the idealistic model
Focus on the here-and-now
Social realistic films want to depict social injustice, such as economic hardship, discrimination or political injustice, and it focuses on the here-and-now, on the topical issues alive in modern society. Social realism at work isconceived as a representation of real working class characters on the screen not the butt of comic eccentrics but the fully-rounded flawed characters in real settings with real problems. Therefore, we see constant similarities; if we take Billy from Kes and compare him with 12-year-old Shaun from This is England (2006), we see fatherless trouble youngsters living on council estates outside the education system.
Social realism may document the history of struggle, but an agreement exists between film-maker and audience that it is not just a nostalgic look back; it must not play loose with the reality of the story. In fact it might document some disturbing lifestyles, such as in This is England where we see Shaun coming under the influence of fascists and racists.
Humour in social realism
Early examples of social realism have used non-actors like in Leeds United (1974), Roy Battersby, an ITV Play for Today, about striking garment workers. In the case of Jim Allen‘s Play for Today, United Kingdom (1981) it gave his first acting role to building worker, Ricky Tomlinson. However, there was a move to use more recognised, professional actors, such as in Brassed Off (1996). At the same time, the humour has changed; the humour in social realism is usually regionally-based and self-deprecating, as in the lead role of Danial Blake, played byDave Johns, who is a comic not known outside the North-East.
A tool of social realism is making the scenes as fresh as possible, so they are shot in chronological order, with the cast not having prior notice of the script. This method leads to a powerful ad-libs, like in Danial Blake where Hayley Squires, playing Kate in a food-bank, in which she is so hungry that she furtively eats a cold tin of beans. Loach had to decide whether or not to keep the scene, but after checking with some local food banks, he found it had an element of truth so he kept it in.
Incomprehensible bureaucracy
It is in this searching for truth that Loach presents us with Kafka-esque scenarios, with isolated protagonists facing incomprehensible bureaucratic powers, although he Loach allows little victories in the humour and humanity of the lead characters. Daniel Blake shows Kate had been sanctioned for being five minutes late for an interview at a job centre and it is with scenes like t his that we have one of the most forcible roles of of social realism to ‘speak truth to power’. Ian Duncan Smith, the architect of Universal Credit, poured scorn on this scene, arguing that it would never happen. However the contract between the consumers and the film makers is that the scene shows the essence of a perceived truth and it is for that reason that it warrants their belief.
Cinema is the regime of powerful billionaires who want to control our beliefs and emotions; it is the studios that decide what is ‘good’ for us and that produce numerous remakes and sequels, making millionaires out of artists, as long as they churn out mediocre films.
Three hundred artists banned as ‘un-American’
If anyone challenges the status quo they could be destroyed by the Hollywood machine: actors, writers and producers were hauled up in front of The House Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1950s. Three hundred artists were banned from Hollywood, including Charlie Chaplain and Paul Robeson. In the 1950s blatant anti-communist propaganda was produced by Hollywood, but now it is more subtle and the majority of films about the future are dystopian fantasies. The image Hollywood wants to portray is that we are doomed from rogue simulants, rather than suggesting there is any prospect of science providing solutions and resolving the climatic crisis.
Harvey Weinstein and a dirty industry
Not only is Hollywood manipulating culture, but it is also influencing social norms and it places studio moguls above acceptable behaviours and the law. This is typified by the case of Harvey Weinstein, the former head of Miramax who not only used his status to sexually assault young women, but used his wealth and legal team to shut up any complaints by the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA). This, an industry where to get on the first run of the ladder to success, you would be expected to do ‘favours’ is not a clean industry. The ‘casting couch’ still exists and this in itself is a reason why the studio system has to be broken up.
Social realism is a tool to address the imbalance in the Arts, but we need more; we need the voice of the working class to be heard: no more posh boys from Eton and Harrow, acting out our lives. Social realism has proved that anyone can look good in front of a camera. The studios need to be democratised with technicians, writers and actors having equal voices in film production. The distribution companies need to be nationalised so that the art is released on merit and not on profit. For a new socialist art that lifts the soul and doesn’t keep it in the dark!
March 2, 2020
