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Purely Joyful Movie!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Most movies are escapist, depicting a world and a lifestyle that are unknown to the viewer. We rarely see the working class - except as criminals - and there is virtually never a reference to trade unions. But British director Ken Loach makes utterly different films, as is well-evidenced here. Set in Yorkshire in the mid 1990s, this work looks at the impact of rail privatisation on a group of maintenance staff or 'navvies', forced to confront a new management style where in theory the customer comes first but in practice cost is the prime factor. Using an unknown cast, naturalistic dialogue and minimal plot, Loach presents us with something close to a documentary and we just know that it is not going to end well.

I've read some trash about this film, so let me make this clear, this is not a Hollywood blockbuster, but someones experience of working when British Rail became privatised. If your adverse to being challenged politically then please don't bother with this, and worse of all don't watch it as the pretext for later writing nonsense about the eighties or Thatcher.The film doesn't have a strong plot, and some of the characters could have been fleshed out but it is an honest reflection of what happens when working people are told to 'modernise' and there's few films or even directors like Loach who even bother with stories ordinary people have to tell.

Saying frankly, I did not enjoy, nor being moved by the movie. The story is neither dramatic nor exciting. The lead character is not well defined and thus easy to confuse the audience. After watching it, being little bit disappointed, I went out to walk my dog, but the movie occupied my thought even after I came home. This is a story in railway workers in the UK, however I could see similar situation in Japan too. In Japan, many companies are gradually recovering from serious downfall. But during the process of profit recovery, companies have replaced fixed-cost employees by variable cost contract workers. As a result, the lifetime employment system has collapsed, and the power of the unions, the members of which are employees only, have been eroding. At the same time, number of contract workers, who do not have systematic training and skills building, has increased. In this trend the gap between peoples of high wages and low wages are becoming wider. British society has been many years the forerunner in the world of winning the rights of workers. But these rights are now too easily forgotten under the pressure of global economy. This is a social crisis in longer term. At least this movie has succeeded to portray this crisis.

A good subject, the destruction of a public service seen from the base up and something that affects all of us. BUT many of Loach's film are far lighter on their feet than this; I wanted to see a movie, not a clunky political diatribe. Worst of all this is sentimental (workers good/bosses bad, plus that sickly ice-stadium "skating with the kids" sequence, let's patronise the down-trodden women and more). And is the story (no spoiler here) really believable at the end?? We are being shown what the system brings honest men to, but they are highly practical, realistic men; would they really come up with such a cock-a-mamie lie?? Loach has made great work in the past but this sadly is not one of his best. Try Riff-Raff (1990), Raining Stones (1993), Land and Freedom (1995) (all great), and early TV work - if you can get hold of it - like Days of Hope (1975) and The Big Flame (1969). Having said that, no-one else is making these kind of relevant films in today's climate in the UK, so watch Navigators but please realise there is better work from Loach waiting for you elsewhere.