The Full Monty (1997)

Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for "the full monty" - total nudity.

Director:

Peter Cattaneo

Writer:

Simon Beaufoy

Stars:

Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Addy

Won 1 Oscar. Another 36 wins & 34 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Carlyle	...	Gaz
Mark Addy	...	Dave
Wim Snape	...	Nathan (as William Snape)
Steve Huison	...	Lomper
Tom Wilkinson	...	Gerald
Paul Barber	...	Horse
Hugo Speer	...	Guy
Lesley Sharp	...	Jean
Emily Woof	...	Mandy
Deirdre Costello	...	Linda
Paul Butterworth	...	Barry
Dave Hill	...	Alan
Bruce Jones	...	Reg
Andrew Livingston	...	Terry (as Andrew Livingstone)
Vinny Dhillon	...	Sharon

Storyline

In the decaying steel mill town of Sheffield in Northern England, friends Gaz and Dave, both now unemployed and on the dole after the closure of most of the town's steel mills, steal scrap metal from the closed mills to supplement their meager income, often with Gaz's twelve year old son, Nathan, on the days Gaz has custody. Still, Gaz is behind in child support payments to his ex-wife, Mandy. When Mandy threatens to sue for full custody in that Gaz can't support Nathan in any way, Gaz, seeing the long line up of women clamoring to get in to see a touring Chippendales styled dance troupe, thinks he can solve his financial and thus custody problems by forming his own male exotic dance troupe with some of his fellow un- or underemployed ex-mill workers. In addition to Dave, he has in mind middle-aged Gerald, their former foreman who has not told his spending-happy wife Linda that he has been unemployed for six months, and Lomper, a mild-mannered security guard who they just met in the ...

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Plot Keywords:

steel worker | unemployment | male stripper | northern england | dole | 

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Taglines:

The year's most revealing comedy.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Full Monty

Filming Locations:

Haugh Lane, Sheffield, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$176,585, 17 August 1997

Gross USA:

$45,950,122

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$257,938,649

Company Credits

Production Co:

Redwave Films, Channel Four Films, Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only film that year to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but not at the Producers Guild of America Awards.

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Goofs

In the funeral scene, Lomper is playing the hymn "Abide with Me" on cornet, and his fingers are clearly visible playing the notes. He plays every note correctly until the last line, where he swaps the two notes on "[ab]-ide with [me]" - he should be playing straight down the scale Bb,A,G,F and in fact plays Bb,G,A,F.

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Quotes

Dave: Well, I just pray they're a bit more understanding about us, that's all.
Horse: You what?
Dave: Well, they're going to be looking at us like that, aren't they, Eh? I mean, what if next Friday 400 women turn 'round and say "He's too fat, he's too old and he's a pigeon-chested little tosser."? What happens then, eh?
Horse: They wouldn't say that, would they?
Dave: Why not? He's just said her tits are too big.
Lomper: That's different. We're... blokes.
Dave: Yeah, and?
Gerald: I think she's got nice tits, actually.
Lomper: I never said owt about her ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The film shown behind the opening credits is "Sheffield...City on the move", made in 1971 for the Sheffield Publicity Department.

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Alternate Versions

There are two english versions of the film: one is the original UK version, the other is the US version which is partly redubbed to replace some british dialects and slang phrases.

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Connections

Referenced in Baghead (2008)

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Soundtracks

Rock and Roll Part 2
Written by Mike Leander/Gary Glitter
Recorded by Gary Glitter
Used by permission of MCA Music Ltd.
Courtesy of Laurence Myers Ltd.

User Reviews

A gem of human comedy

I want to start off by saying, if you're looking for slap-shtick comedy and low- rent toilet humor, this is NOT the movie for you. It has its moments of "belt-in- the-face" fun, but they are consistently grounded in the real problems the lead characters face -- unemployment, loss of family, lack of self-respect, fear of ridicule and a bleak future that promises even greater failure. This is not a Farrelly Brothers kind of story...and that is what makes it so special.

Gaz is broke, on welfare, lives in the projects, is behind on his child support and is threatened with losing his son to his ex-wife unless he can pull together 700 pounds (about $1100). But this is Sheffield, England -- once a boomtown but now a deadening city of shopping malls and garment mills, where the factories (and the guys that worked in them) are empty shells of themselves. The women have jobs; the men have job fairs. Into this comes a touring "Chippendale's" dance troupe (aimed at women only; after all, they have the spare money) and an idea is born. Gaz and some mates will strip all the way, give the ladies "the full monty", as a way to earn some quick change.

The idea is preposterous. Only one of the six men in the new dance troupe is good-looking enough to pull it off (pun intended); the rest are either fat, skinny, old and/or ugly. But the movie's gentle suggestion is that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but so is self-respect...and in following through with their plans, they gain a LOT more than just 2000 pounds each.

Robert Carlyle is good as the anchor of the piece, always pushing and planning and cajoling and begging and even stealing, as need be, but it's the rest of the cast that makes this movie work -- from Tom Wilkinson as a manager ashamed to tell his wife he's lost his job to Mark Addy as a man who's so ashamed of how fat and unattractive he is, he's driving his wife away right down to Hugo Speer and his joyful "let's have a blast" attitude.

"The Full Monty" is a gem of human comedy aimed not at the gut but at the sense of hope we all carry. I recommend it for anyone who needs a lift.