Play for Today (TV Series) The Rank and File (1971) User Reviews

Rousing Call for Real Democracy

[lchadbou-326-26592 · 6/10 · 8 May 2021]

This early Tv film by the great politically conscious British director Ken Loach (arguably no other movie maker has done more with their work to illuminate timely issues of social justice) uses an event that had happened just one year before the telecast to call for industrial democracy. Workers in a company town at a glass factory go out on a wildcat strike for fairer pay when the bureaucratic union structure that is legally supposed to represent them fails to support their issues.

The dramatization, following up on a similar exploration of labor problems in Loach's The Big Flame two years before, raises a larger question of democracy beyond just the workplace. Governments around the world not just in the UK claim to be democracies but in fact leave most of their citizens without any direct say in politics and with a system of representation where the officials claiming to act in their interests have become way too settled and comfortable with the corporate powers and have actually sold out and become corrupt.

Loach's recreation of a specific local action in its historical context is devastating and we are reminded that the British Labor Party hadn't really done much to help the workers since 1926, when there had been a General Strike.

For fans of Loach - and Allen - it's certainly worth watching, but it definitely isn't their best work.

[dr_clarke_2 · 5/10 · 29 October 2022]

Having directed several episodes of The Wednesday Play for the BBC, Ken Loach moved on its successor program Play for Today with 'The Rank and File'. Written by Jim Allen, it bears certain similarities to his previous Loach collaboration (and Wednesday Play) 'The Big Flame', resolving as it does around industrial action. Inspired by the Pilkington Glass Works strike of 1970, which started over a pay discrepancy, it is closer to being a true story than 'The Big Flame', but despite - or perhaps because of - this, it works somewhat less well.

Like 'The Big Flame', 'The Rank and File' stars Peter Kerrigan, this time as Glass Worker Eddie, whom the story follows. He provides a factual-sounding voiceover that lends the production the docu-drama feeling favoured by Loach and producer Graeme McDonald, although it somewhat detracts from the end result as Allen uses him as a blatantly mouthpiece and has him rather clumsily quote Trotsky at the end. In keeping with most of Allen and Loach's work together, it has a deep undercurrent of anger at the unfair treatment of the working man, but on this occasion it feels like a manifesto and it trades characterisation for passion. Any character who criticises the strikers is written as cartoonish at best, and even Allen later admitted he had got too didactic when writing the script. Not for the first time in an Allen-scripted Loach BBC play, it also heavily criticises the Trade Unions. Unfortunately, the end result is often quite dull, lecturing the audience instead of providing drama (and indeed entertainment), a balance that 'The Big Flame' achieved.

Nevertheless, it's not all bad. The cast members all give convincing performances, except Joan Flood, who gives a somewhat hammy performance as Joan. In addition to Kerrigan, who is excellent, several other cast members also return from 'The Big Flame', notably Billy Dean who plays Billy. A young Brian Glover, who had previously appeared in Loach's Kes, has a small, uncredited role. It looks good too: it is filmed on location, with frequent use of handheld cameras that significantly contributes to the pseudo-documentary feel, and it shows Loach's usual skill behind the camera, especially during brawls, which are filmed so as to draw the audience into the chaotic action.

And if the Trotksy quote feels crow-barred into the script, it doesn't detract from the powerful bitter note on which the play ends, with Eddie and the rest of the Rank and File Committee blacklisted and feeling betrayed by the TUC. The outrageous treatment of Charlie, who loses his pension after forty-three years, comes at the hands of a smug, faceless company man; it's designed to enrage the viewer and in many cases undoubtedly will. For fans of Loach - and Allen - it's certainly worth watching, but it definitely isn't their best work.