Review of Comrades (1987) by Mike M — 21 Jun 2009

Sees in the Martyrs' struggles the origins of unionism, a subject which would obviously be of relevance to the Britain into which it was first released, but is no less so viewed from the perspective of the industrial actions of 2009.

If the film has something to say, it's also supremely visual in saying it: indeed, this may be the closest any British film has come to matching the sheer physical beauty of Malick's "Days of Heaven".

.. The film's political leanings are such that these characters come to be defined more by communal activity - working, singing, gathered round at touring shows - than they perhaps are as individuals; still, in its rough-hewn combination of history lesson, grass-roots politics and folk poetry, this counts as a notable rediscovery, to be filed alongside Loach's "Land and Freedom" and the Brownlow/Mollo "Winstanley" on any serious left-facing DVD shelf.