Riff-Raff (1991)

Director:

Ken Loach

Writer:

Bill Jesse (writer)

Release Date:

12 February 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

The story of Stevie, a construction worker, and his girlfriend, an unemployed pop singer, serves to...

Plot Keywords:

Actual Animal Killed | Political | Building Laborer | Independent Film

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Robert Carlyle	...	Steve
Emer McCourt	...	Susan
Richard Belgrave	...	Kojo
Jim R. Coleman	...	Shem
David Finch	...	Kevin
Garrie J. Lammin	...	Mick
Dean Perry	...	Wilf
George Moss	...	Mo
Willie Ross	...	Gus Siddon
Ade Sapara	...	Fiaman
Ricky Tomlinson	...	Larry
Derek Young	...	Desmonde
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Alder	...	Director
Dominic Barlow	...	Pianist
Jimmy Batten	...	Man buying Kango
Terry Bird	...	Van driver
Tracy Brabin	...	Singer
Maureen Carr	...	Ellen
Lila Cherif	...	Client
Martin Clapson	...	Pub Band
Tex Comer	...	Pub Band
Brian Coyle	...	Youth
Les Davidson	...	Pub Band
Terry Duggan	...	Boss in office
Zohra El Harrack	...	Client
Joumana Gil	...	Client
Debra Gillett	...	Singer
Mike Haydon	...	Security Guard
Jimmy Jewel	...	Pub Band
John Kazek	...	Robert
Luke Kelly	...	Ken Jones
Benjamin Lush	...	Singer
James MacDonald	...	Funeral Director
Jayne Charlton McKensie	...	Singer (as Jayne MacKenzie)
Bill Moores	...	Smurph
Angela Morant	...	Estate Agent
Peter Mullan	...	Jake
Johanne Murdock	...	Singer
Vicky Murdock	...	Medical Secretary
Dylan O'Mahony	...	Youth
Stuart Peveril	...	Youth
Len Stonebridge	...	Pub Band
David Taegar	...	Producer
Anne Marie Timoney	...	Fiona

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-14 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:Open (rating surrendered: 1992) | USA:R (original rating: 1992)

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Channel Four Films

Quotes:

Susan: Do you ever get depressed?
Steve: No, depressions are for the middle classes, the rest of us have got an early start in the morning.

Soundtrack:

I'm So Exited

Powerful 1980's Thatcherite comedy-drama that is well worth watching.

It is rare that a drama is anything about your life or any part of it. I apologise is your job is searching for serial killers or on your way to becoming a world sporting champion after overcoming cancer, but what we have here is a little bit of (UK) working class reality. Trust me I was there and so was the late writer Bill Jess.

(Jess died shortly before this film came out.)

I worked on a building sites at weekends as a 15 year old and although I have no pictures or film to remind - at least I have this and the buildings that I helped construct.

I have met all of the people under the loop here (not always on building sites though) and, to be quite frank, it is all a bit frightening. However I lived in a predominantly white district so I had no experience of on-the-job multiculturalism, and that is the only part I cannot really comment upon or relate to.

Robert Carlyle is a genius at portraying the British working-class. Maybe he is the real thing, in part, but he seems able to transform himself physically as well as mentally. I have never seen him overact in anything and he has had plenty of opportunities. He even takes on impossible parts like Hitler!

Here he is a Glasgow jailbird, squatting in London and hoping to make a few quid on the black economy. He hooks up with a girl that claims to be a singer and poet, but is actually only in to hard drugs. He deals with the situation the best he can using the only language he can.

London is the 1980's was one of the cheapest places in the world to live. You wanted a flat? - get a crowbar - here's your flat! Well for a short while before the heavy mob show up. That is how the rock group The Police first got to live in our capital city!

(Today building sites are full of foreign workers - some legal, some not - that don't squat but live in the back of vans parked on or near the site.)

Strangely, Ricky Tomlinson became a actor after being banned from building sites due to his political activities. In 1973 he sent to jail (see his IMDb bio) in an episode that shows British justice at its worst: Charging someone with a serious offence and then trying to get a guilty plea in return for a lesser charge. Ricky - being a man not a mouse - didn't fall for it. Others did, making it look extra bad for him.

He later went to be a popular man on TV and British film and will earn over a million dollars from his autobiography "Ricky"!

What makes this film even more frightening is the dramatic conclusion. Something similar (although not quite as serious) happened where I worked - although not while I was there.

In a coincidence that would make a TV script writer blush I was with the boss of the said firm in a van and we passed the subject in the street. "He got very lucky," said Mr Boss-man waving from the van, "he landed on his head and that is what saved him." It was pure Ken Loach moment, so I hope he is reading this.