Look Back in Anger (1959)

 Tony Richardson's "Look Back in Anger"


There is a certain subgenre of British film called "kitchen sink dramas" that became very popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This unique type of drama centers on angry, young, lower-class men disillusioned with modern society. The ignition of this type of drama started in theater. More specifically, with John Osborne's 1956 play "Look Back in Anger."

The film adaption of this iconic play, directed by Tony Richardson, stars Richard Burton as the 'angry young man' protagonist. Living with his girlfriend and best friend, Burton's Jimmy is verbally and emotionally abusive to everyone around him. His low-income status and his inability to make anything of himself fills him with resentment and bitterness that comes out in bursts of anger and violence. 

I had a very strange relationship to the film. The amount of hatred I felt for Jimmy radiated throughout the whole experience. This hatred made the film all the better, as his contempt was as inescapable to the viewer as it was to Jimmy himself. It started as an emotional piece that really illustrated the temperament of an entire class of British society.

However, there is a shift in the film in which Jimmy partners with someone else that really knocked me off a bit. The decisions made by the character of Helena really made the film tainted with the scent of contrivance. It didn't make any sense to me why Helena, who witness all of Jimmy's intense abuse of his girlfriend, Alison, would ever trade her concern and judgement into actual romance and affection. It baffled me to say the least.

This weird shift in the film disavowed me from its emotional core. I no longer felt emotionally connected due to these contrivances and felt the film suffered greatly from them. However, there are still pieces of the film to pick up and keep as souvenirs. It is not a total waste. In fact, I'm sure I will look back fondly on the film specifically for its emotionally resonant first half.

That being said, the 'kitchen sink drama' genre movement that was created with the film ushered in a new realism in British cinema. As the 50s morphed into the 60s, social and political issues took precedent over mindless entertainment. These kitchen sink dramas represented a seething underbelly class of British society that was growing tired of their place in the economic ladder. They demonstrated the bubbling resentments that lay at the heart of an entire nation. "Look Back in Anger" embraced the philosophies of Italian neo-realism to usher in a new era of British filmmaking. For that, it is elevated to a commendable place in film history.



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