Taglines: Fed up with the system. Ticked off at the establishment. And mad about… each other.
Brassed Off movie storyline. Gloria Mullins has been sent to her home town of Grimley to determine the profitability of the pit for the management of British Coal. She also plays the flugelhorn, and is allowed to play with the local brass band after playing Concierto de Aranjuez with them.
The band is made up of miners from whom she must conceal her purpose. She renews a childhood romance with Andy Barrow, which soon leads to complications. Andy is bitter about the programme of pit closures and determined to fight on, but he is also realistic about the circumstances and predicts a 4-to-1 majority for closure and redundancy.
When Andy realises that Gloria is working for management, he accuses her of naïvety for thinking that the Coal Board is considering whether the pit has any viable future and argues that the decision to close Grimley would have been taken years ago. It is later revealed during a confrontation between Gloria and the management of the colliery that the decision to close the colliery had been made two years previously, and that this was to have gone ahead regardless of the findings of her report; the report was simply a public relations exercise to placate the miners and members of the public sympathetic to their plight.
The passionate band conductor, Danny Ormondroyd, finds he is fighting a losing battle to keep the rest of the band members committed. His son Phil is badly in debt and becomes a clown for children’s parties, but fails to prevent his wife and children walking out on him. In debt, Phil votes for the redundancy money, which he becomes ashamed of.
As Danny collapses in the street and is hospitalised, Phil suffers a mental breakdown while entertaining a group of children as part of a harvest festival in a church. He refers to himself as “Coco the scab”—a name that he had been called by a debt collector who he had asked to wait until the redundancy money had come through. Eventually he attempts suicide by trying to hang himself, but is taken to the hospital. Phil reveals to Danny that in light of the colliery’s closure, the band has decided not to continue playing.
Brassed Off is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor. The soundtrack for the film was provided by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the plot is based on Grimethorpe’s own struggles against pit closures.
It is generally very positively received for its role in promoting brass bands and their music. Parts of the film make reference to the huge increase in suicides that resulted from the end of the coal industry in Britain, and the struggle to retain hope in the circumstances. In the United States the film was promoted simply as a romantic comedy involving McGregor and Fitzgerald’s characters.
Brassed Off (1997)
Directed by: Mark Herman
Starring: Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Jim Carter, Mary Healey, Melanie Hill, Philip Jackson, Sue Johnston, Peter Martin, Olga Grahame
Screenplay by: Mark Herman
Production Design by: Don Taylor
Cinematography by: Andy Collins
Film Editing by: Michael Ellis
Costume Design by: Amy Roberts
Set Decoration by: Brian Read
Art Direction by: Felicity Joll
Music by: Trevor Jones
MPAA Rating: R for language.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: May 23, 1997
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