BFI Screen Online - Social Realism by Richard Armstrong

Social Realism by Richard Armstrong

This article was published on BFI screen online's website by Richard Armstrong. I thought this particular article was interesting and useful as it contained a lot of the history about the genre as well as putting it in context to world cinema.

The article proceeds to talk about the genre in chronological order by starting with films such as "Rescued By The Rover" (1905) to "After The War"(1902) all the way to more modern films such as Ken Loach's "Sweet Sixteen" (2002)

Armstrong believes that British Social Realism is "characterised by stoicism and verisimilitude" and that it combines the "objective temper and aesthetics of the documentary movement with the stars and resources of studio filmmaking."

This article uses a quote from a historian, Roger Manvell, who said that after the war "the cinemas reopened, the public flooded in, searching for relief from hard work, companionship, release from tension, emotional indulgence and, where they could find them, some reaffirmation of the values of humanity." The Social Realism films of that time, "Millions Like Us" (1943) and "This Happy Breed" (1944) offered the public this.

Armstrong addresses the "relaxation of censorship" around 1960 and he suggests this was a huge factor in the success of social realism films being able to portray as close to real life as possible. He said as a result of this "characters had sex lives, money worries, social problems. Auteurs could deal with prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, alienation and relationship problems." These all aided the genre to portray a greater sense of "verisimilitude."

Armstrong begins to discuss "The New Wave" which was a sub-genre of social realism. He identifies one of the key themes of this genre being "issues around masculinity" and that the majority of these film'a "protagonists was usually a working-class male without bearings in a society which traditional industries and the cultures that went with them were in decline." To support this argument he uses "High Hopes" (1988) and "The Full Monty"(1997)