Brassed Off

"Fed up with the system. Ticked off at the establishment. And mad about... each other."

1996 1h 47m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 306

ComedyRomanceDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A Yorkshire coal mine is threatened with closure and the only hope is for the men to enter their Grimley Colliery Brass Band into a national competition. They believe they have no hope until Gloria appears carrying her Flugelhorn. At first mocked for being a woman, she soon becomes the only chance for the band to win.

“Fed up with the system. Ticked off at the establishment. And mad about... each other.”

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Cast

Ewan McGregor
Andy Barrow
Tara Fitzgerald
Gloria
Pete Postlethwaite
Danny
Jim Carter
Harry
Stephen Tompkinson
Phil
Philip Jackson
Jim
Sue Johnston
Vera
Peter Martin
Ernie

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mark Herman
Writers: Mark Herman
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

30 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mark Herman, shot by Andy Collins. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Trevor Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Ellis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald and Pete Postlethwaite carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Fed up with the system. Ticked off at the establishment. And mad about... each other.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0115744 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mark Herman directs. Andy Collins behind the camera. Trevor Jones scores. Michael Ellis cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

130 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Mark Herman, shot by Andy Collins. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Trevor Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Michael Ellis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald and Pete Postlethwaite carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Fed up with the system. Ticked off at the establishment. And mad about... each other.".
7IMDB entry: tt0115744 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Andy Collins
Original score: Trevor Jones
Editing: Michael Ellis
Production design: Don Taylor
Costume design: Amy Roberts
Makeup / hair: Sallie Evans
Sound: Graham Daniel
Runtime: 107 min · 1h 47m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $2,576,197
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Brassed Off (1996)

Awards

César Award for Best Foreign Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Mark Herman

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Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-06-28
★ 9/10
Land of bloody hope and glory eh! 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!
CinemaSerf2023-08-27
★ 7/10
A touching drama of a declining mining community in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Pete Postlethwaite is subtle but forceful in his portrayal of "Danny"; the leader of the Grimley Colliery Band - one of the traditional brass bands that usually accompanied each mine in the North of England, much a there is a choir usually associated with a Welsh one. The story marries the inevitability of the mine closure with the impact on family and relationships throughout this close knit community and uses their band rehearsals as the axis for the plot. Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Philip Jackson and Jim Carter all contribute genuinely to this frequently dryly-humoured ensemble effort and by the end we are all too familiar with Rodrigo's "Concerto de Orange Juice".