Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)

 Karel Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"


After Tony Richardson's successful realization of the British "kitchen sink drama" with 1959's "Look Back in Anger," he went on to produce more kitchen sink dramas. For the adaptation of the 1958 novel "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning," he handed over the reigns to Karel Reisz. Starring Albert Finney, "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" went on to be just as prominent in British culture as "Look Back in Anger." 

Centering on an 'angry young man,' a trope integral to the format of the kitchen sink drama, the film takes us through his life working as a young machinist and a social terror. Bored of the mundanity of his empty job, he starts up an affair with a older, married woman and eventually impregnates her. All the while, he also forms a relationship with another woman, Doreen. She wants to live a domestic life - something that feels suffocating to our protagonist.

While watching the film, I couldn't help compare and contrast it to "Look Back in Anger." I think this film is far more grounded in reality, as the former seemed to become more and more unbelievable as it progressed. Whereas, with "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning," the life of our protagonist, Arthur, is certainly indicative of what common life would be like for lower class men living in British urban areas. 

Really, this angry young man represents the industrialized citizen of the post-war era Western culture. Capitalism now rules the west and Arthur is merely a cog in the machine of industry - making poor wages and trapped by economic circumstances. This entrapment breeds restlessness, provided by Arthur's indulgences in alcohol, sexual affairs, and harassing his neighbors. This life is meaningless and the great tragedy of the story is that it will continue to be meaningless. His restless quirks almost seem justified.

All in all, I preferred this film to "Look Back in Anger," despite Richard Burton's explosive performance in the latter. "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" is a great piece of realism and perhaps one of the best 'kitchen sink dramas' I've seen yet.



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