Films by Ken Loach

I haven't been on here for some time! This is my last post for some more time as well as I will be off travelling and volunteering around the world.

Ken Loach is a British director who has had much critical acclaim. His YouTube channel features some of his films in full so it's only right to link them here for you.

The Big Flame

'The Big Flame' was writer Jim Allen's second Wednesday Play (BBC, 1964-70), and his first with director Kenneth Loach. After 'The Lump' (tx. 1/2/1967), about the exploitation of casual labour in the building trade, Allen used his Marxist credentials to depict striking Liverpool dockers enacting a Communist-style system of workers' control.



His others are not embeddable but here are links to watch them externally.

Cathy, Come Home - From the BBC's influential 'Wednesday Play' series. This tells the bleak tale of Cathy, who loses her home, husband and eventually her child through the inflexibility of the British welfare system. A grim picture is painted of mid-sixties London, realistic, but the viewer cannot but realise that a political point is being made. One of the consequences of this film was the formation of the housing charity 'Shelter'.

The Gamekeeper - A simple tale of a year in the life of a Gamekeeper. From the troubles involved in rearing the pheasants and dealing with predators (poachers and foxes). The gamekeeper shows us all the good things about living so close to nature. The end of his year comes with the organised shoot. He has the sudden pressure of dealing with a lot of people, (beaters, the guns and "the master") and ensuring that everyone has a good day and stays safe.

Land and Freedom - 1936. David an unemployed young man, leaves Liverpool to join the fight against Fascism in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. He joins an international section of the Republican Militia on the Aragon front where he experiences the trials and anguish of the war.

Looks and Smiles - It's 1980 in Sheffield and Mick and Alan have just left school, full of dreams for the future. But against the background of Thatcher's Britain the two soon wake up reality, facing daily rejection in their search for work.