Look Back In Anger

Nowadays we're more likely to look back in mild irritation such has been the effect of the passing years on John Osbourne's once firebrand play. It's an important film in that it and "Room at the Top" heralded the advent of the British kitchen sink drama which threw up some great classics in the early 60s. It feels like a filmed play, however, lacking the vibrancy and realism of some of the later works while Richard Burton comes across as being far too patrician to convince as the irascible Jimmy Porter. Mary Ure too is rather too simpy as the downtrodden wife. But as a distillation of Britain turning a corner, starting to embrace multi-culturism, and becoming more sexually frank, it's a fascinating testament.