Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

semp2000 The music was absolutely exquisite and the acting excellent. Felt that some elements could have been left out e.g. God-bashing moments, blasphemy which I thought were totally unnecessary and offensive. Does the director/writer/producer have something against the Catholic Church in particular?The speech at the end was quite disappointing for someone with one foot on the grave and it was lacking some type of closure. Yes, I can imagine the frustration of these coal-mine workers as obviously these things have been happening and are still happening all around the world including Australia in the different industries.I have always loved watching English comedy/drama but, this one put me off somewhat and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone quite honestly. Rather buy a CD with similar music and avoid all the non-sensical things by watching movies such as this one.

Don Tyler Brassed Off is a British film about the troubles of a colliery brass band when the coal mines that sponsored the band was forced to close by the government in 1992, the same week the Grimethorpe Colliery Band won the National Brass Band Championship. The closures killed the coal industry in England and forced many miners out of their jobs. "Brassed off" is a British slang expression that means dejected, fed up, upset, which is what the coal miners were when they were forced into retirement, into joblessness, and some even into suicide when the government closed the mines. Between 1990 and 1997, the party in control of the British government was the Conservatives, who were led by John Major, although the film calls them Tories or the Tory party. When the government decided to replace coal with nuclear power as a source of fuel, approximately 140 coal pits, representing more than 200,000 miners' jobs, were deemed redundant. The government offered the workers "redundancy" – forced retirement with severance pay. The film is set in Grimley, a fictitious town that represents the village of Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire, in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, the European Union named Grimethorpe the poorest village in Britain. The village, however, is still fiercely proud of their brass band that has been in existence since 1881. The film has been criticized by some as a poor imitation of the Yorkshire dialect and accent, but most American audiences wouldn't know the difference. If you like brass band music, you'll enjoy Brassed Off and you'll learn some history about the British government closing the coal mines at the same time (something the U.S. may be forced to do in the not-too-distant future if the environmentalists have their way).

Spikeopath Grimley Colliery Brass Band has been going for nigh on a century, but as the town's colliery itself comes under threat of closure due to the drawn out miners strikes, so does the bands very own survival. Giving much relief to a very depressed area, the band are hoping to make the grand finals day at the Royal Albert Hall, could the arrival of Flugelhorn player, Gloria, be just what the band needs? Or is she merely the catalyst to something far more critical?Brassed Off is the first of what I personally call the Magical British Trio, three films that perfectly portray the British sense of humour during dark depressing times of unemployment. The other two of course are The Full Monty (1997) and Billy Elliot (2000), of which Brassed Off is essentially an appetiser of sorts, the warm up act for the big hitters so to speak. Not to say that Brassed Off is not worthy to sit alongside those well received pictures (home and abroad as they say), it most certainly is, it's just that its blend of humour and strife doesn't find any easy ground, thus making it hard for the undiscerning viewer to be at ease at the right moments. It is in short, unsure of what it primarily wants to be. The humour does work well tho, but it's in the dramatic core of the miners strikes, and the affects they have on the denizens of this quaint colliery town, that Brassed Off truly works, with some scenes literally tugging away at the old heart strings. Then there be the music itself, The Grimethorpe Colliery Band {on whose real life story this film is based} provide the music for the soundtrack, and its most enjoyable, often stirring, and definitely poignant at crucial moments.The cast are tremendous, Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald offer up splendid youthful heart, but they are playing second fiddle (or should that be third brass section?) to Pete Postlethwaite and Stephen Tompkinson. As father and son, Postlethwaite and Tompkinson give the film its deep emotional being, each driven by differing needs, Brassed Off's success rests with both men being able to hold the viewers attention from the get go. Tompkinson has made a very profitable and thriving career in British Television, and rightly so, but it remains criminal that he didn't go on and make more well known and profitable full length feature films after his fabulous turn here. Filmed in the ideal Northern English town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Brassed Off is a film that has evident problems, but to someone like me, a Brit who lived thru those depressing days under Margaret Thatcher's government, it's a film that I love for a myriad of reasons, one can only hope that one of those reasons strikes a chord with yourselves.A completely biased 9/10 from me!

pc95 Brassed Off has an enjoyable cast with a heartfelt story of a local town's mine folds, and the way a bunch of the men cope - through a brass band. As a detraction, the film's pacing crawls especially in the first third of the movie. The band represents a good departure though and vehicle for economic commentary without becoming too bogged down in details. Always spectacular, Pete Postleswaite really helps bring emotion and determination in his performance as usual. He single-handedly leads the movie to a good show. Some of his band-mates also prove interesting including his son, whose story takes a lot of the screen-time in order to depict the real economic hardships that's befallen the locality. Ewan McGregor is here as more a supporting character and does a decent bit, but has been better. His role is more subdued. I'm sure this is compared to the Full-Monty, and while not as much fun or delivered as well, Brassed Off has the same spirit. Solidly recommended unless you cant stand slow pacing.