An uneven though interesting film still watchable for the most part with sharply observed dialogue especially between the two protagonists contrasting with occasional bouts of Carry On voyeuristic titillation & Whitehall farce humour & oddly misappropriate parachuting of crude language all of which I found excruciatingly embarrassing in 2017 (though wonder if I would have done in 1976).
Carry on films despite the crudity can still produce good one-liners (Infamy Infamy they've all got in in for me) and this one has a brilliant one delivered most amazingly by Thelma Bob's wife the most "respectable" character in the film but to be worth a review the film does have a life at the crossroads where do we go from here in a vastly changed world from our youth feel that makes it interesting and is sustained despite slipping into cul-de-sacs of crudity both visual and verbal at times which spoil the film.
I was quite amazed at something else I saw in this film which would never be allowed these days and that is the car pulling the caravan for the winter wonderland holiday (was it a deliberate decision to shoot the film in winter or did it just happen to be convenient/necessary at that time) had no wing mirrors and yet the characters were shown on the open highway driving a car from the block of flats where Terry Collier and his girl friend lived over the Tyne bridge onto duel carriageways and into the countryside.
The most poignant scene in the film is the drinking session the two Likely Lads characters have near the end of the film before Terry's departure on board a ship he had signed up to sail in which reflected well each of the personalities depth or lack of it with Bob searching his soul for a meaning to his life which he hadn't found (nor ever will) quoting from the John Masefield poem "Cargoes"
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, then Bob goes on
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
recalling school days of "recitation" where pupils had to recite chunks of poetry (which needless to say Terry doesn't relate to or remember) though strangely considering the location no further quote
With a cargo of Tyne coal, Road-rails, pig-lead, Firewood, iron- ware, and cheap tin trays.
Trying to find meaning to his life which Middle-Class respectability had not brought to it and trying to find orientation whilst the physical fabric of his childhood and youth was physically being destroyed from the graphic shots earlier in the film of districts of their old neighbourhood being destroyed.
Terry as ever non reflective but a survivor on his wits very much the live for today as yesterday has gone and you can do nothing about it and tomorrow will bring pretty much what yesterday brought so live with it. Terry isn't a rebel but sees himself as a realist in a world which only gives what you can make out of it which isn't in his working class case amounting to very much so make what you can of what you have and take pleasure where you can find it which in his case is very much booze and women. In the case of women he will always be adrift like Bob attempting to find meaning beyond respectability in that his short term selfishness will always eventually trump the restraint required to keep a long term relationship alive and always worth saving (like Bob's with Thelma)
The characters were both supposed to be born in 1941 though I see that James Bolam was born June 1935 and Rodney Bewes in Nov 1937 so both were supposed to be 34/35 when this film was made in 1975/6 which for Bolam was stretching it a bit though as no one said very much at the time he could obviously carry it off back then.
Carry on films despite the crudity can still produce good one-liners (Infamy Infamy they've all got in in for me) and this one has a brilliant one delivered most amazingly by Thelma Bob's wife the most "respectable" character in the film but to be worth a review the film does have a life at the crossroads where do we go from here in a vastly changed world from our youth feel that makes it interesting and is sustained despite slipping into cul-de-sacs of crudity both visual and verbal at times which spoil the film.
I was quite amazed at something else I saw in this film which would never be allowed these days and that is the car pulling the caravan for the winter wonderland holiday (was it a deliberate decision to shoot the film in winter or did it just happen to be convenient/necessary at that time) had no wing mirrors and yet the characters were shown on the open highway driving a car from the block of flats where Terry Collier and his girl friend lived over the Tyne bridge onto duel carriageways and into the countryside.
The most poignant scene in the film is the drinking session the two Likely Lads characters have near the end of the film before Terry's departure on board a ship he had signed up to sail in which reflected well each of the personalities depth or lack of it with Bob searching his soul for a meaning to his life which he hadn't found (nor ever will) quoting from the John Masefield poem "Cargoes"
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, then Bob goes on
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
recalling school days of "recitation" where pupils had to recite chunks of poetry (which needless to say Terry doesn't relate to or remember) though strangely considering the location no further quote
With a cargo of Tyne coal, Road-rails, pig-lead, Firewood, iron- ware, and cheap tin trays.
Trying to find meaning to his life which Middle-Class respectability had not brought to it and trying to find orientation whilst the physical fabric of his childhood and youth was physically being destroyed from the graphic shots earlier in the film of districts of their old neighbourhood being destroyed.
Terry as ever non reflective but a survivor on his wits very much the live for today as yesterday has gone and you can do nothing about it and tomorrow will bring pretty much what yesterday brought so live with it. Terry isn't a rebel but sees himself as a realist in a world which only gives what you can make out of it which isn't in his working class case amounting to very much so make what you can of what you have and take pleasure where you can find it which in his case is very much booze and women. In the case of women he will always be adrift like Bob attempting to find meaning beyond respectability in that his short term selfishness will always eventually trump the restraint required to keep a long term relationship alive and always worth saving (like Bob's with Thelma)
The characters were both supposed to be born in 1941 though I see that James Bolam was born June 1935 and Rodney Bewes in Nov 1937 so both were supposed to be 34/35 when this film was made in 1975/6 which for Bolam was stretching it a bit though as no one said very much at the time he could obviously carry it off back then.