RSS

Category Archives: Drama

Sunday Too Far Away (1975)

07 May

94m; Australia

Director: Ken Hannam

Cast:  Jack Thompson, Max Cullen and Robert Bruning

Synopsis (Wikipedia): The film is set on a sheep station in the Australian outback in 1955 and its action concentrates on the shearers’ reactions to a threat to their bonuses and the arrival of non-union labour.

Acclaimed for its understated realism of the work, camaraderie and general life of the shearer, Jack Thompson plays the knock-about Foley, a heavy drinking gun shearer (talented professional sheep shearer), and while he makes a play for the station owner’s daughter Sheila (Lisa Peers), the film is a presentation of various aspects of Australian male culture and not a romance; the film’s title itself is reputedly the lament of a shearer’s wife, ‘Friday night too tired; Saturday night too drunk; Sunday, too far away’.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Drama, Farm & Food

 

The Sundowners (1960)

07 May

133m; Australia

Director: Fred Zinnemann

Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Peter Ustinov

Synopsis (IMDB): In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family–Paddy, Ida and their teenage son Sean–are sheep drovers, always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down and buy a farm. Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, the birth of a child, drinking, gambling and a race horse will all have a part in the final decision.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Farm & Food, Working Class

 

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

07 May

106m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Martin Compston, Michelle Coulter and Annmarie Fulton

Synopsis: Liam is a young, restless teen struggling to realize his dream in the gritty and dismal streets of Greenock, where unemployment is rampant and little hope is available to the city’s youth. He is waiting for the release of his mother, Jean, from prison where she is completing a prison term for a crime that her boyfriend actually committed. Her boyfriend, Stan, is a crude and obnoxious drug pusher is partnered by Liam’s equally rough and foul-mouthed, mean-spirited grandfather. Liam is determined to rescue his mother from both of them, which means creating a safe haven beyond their reach. But first he’s got to raise the cash–no small feat for a young man It’s not long before Liam and his pals’ crazy schemes lead them into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself dangerously out of his depth, Liam knows he should walk away. Only this time, he just can’t let go

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Legal System, Working Class

 

Swept Away (1974)

07 May

116m; Italy

Director: Lina Wertmüller

Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato and Riccardo Salvino

Synopsis (IMDB): A rich woman, Raffaella, and some friends rent a yacht to sail the Mediterranean Sea during summer. The sailor, Gennarino, who is a communist, does not like this woman but has to bear with her bad mood. One day she wakes up late in the afternoon and asks to be taken to land where everyone had gone earlier. Gennarino sets up a boat but during the trip, the boat breaks down. They spend the night in the middle of the sea.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama

 

Swimming With Sharks (1994)

07 May

101m; U.S.

Director: George Huang

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley and Michelle Forbes

Synopsis: A young Hollywood executive becomes the assistant to a big time movie producer who is the worst boss imaginable: abusive, abrasive and cruel. But soon things turn around when the young executive kidnaps his boss and visits all the cruelties back on him.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Comedy, Crime-Action, Drama, Entertainment Industry, White Collar

 

Taxi! (1932)

07 May

69m; U.S.

Director: Roy del Ruth

Cast: James Cagney, Loretta Young and George E. Stone

Synopsis (IMDB): Amidst a backdrop of growing violence and intimidation, independent cab drivers struggling against a consolidated juggernaut rally around hot-tempered Matt Nolan. Nolan is determined to keep competition alive on the streets, even if it means losing the woman he loves.

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Transportation, Working Class

 

Swing Shift (1984)

07 May

100m; U.S.

Director: Jonathan Demme

Cast: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell and Christine Lahti

Synopsis (IMDB): In 1941 America Kay and her husband are happy enough until he enlists after Pearl Harbor. Against his wishes, his wife takes a job at the local aircraft plant where she meets Hazel, the singer from across the way to whom she hadn’t previously been all that nice. The two soon become firm friends and with the other girls become increasingly expert workers able to ride the jibes of the male workforce. As the war drags on Kay finally goes on a date with her trumpet playing foreman and life inevitably starts to get complicated.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, War, Working Class

 

Tags:

The Hedgehog (2009)

07 May

100m; France

Director: Mona Achache

Cast: Josiane Balasko, Garance Le Guillermic and Togo Igawa

Synopsis (IMDB): Paloma is a serious and highly articulate but deeply bored 11-year-old who has decided to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she questions and documents her life and immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some kindred spirits in her building’s grumpy janitor and an enigmatic, elegant neighbor, both of whom inspire Paloma to question her rather pessimistic outlook on life.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Children, Drama, Philosophy, Working Class

 

Take Out (2004)

07 May

87m; U.S.

Director: Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou

Cast: Charles Jang, Jeng-Hua Yu and Wang-Thye Lee

Synopsis: An illegal Chinese immigrant falls behind on payments on an enormous smuggling debt. Ming Ding has only until the end of the day to come up with the money.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Immigrants/Immigration

 

Tags:

Tamango (1958)

07 May

98m; France

Director: John Berry

Cast: Dorothy Dandridge, Curt Jürgens and Jean Servais

Synopsis (IMDB): A Dutch slave captain, on a voyage to Cuba, faces a revolt fomented by a newly captured African slave, Tamango. The slaves capture the captain’s mistress, forcing a showdown.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Slavery

 
← Older posts
Newer posts →