A Sense of Social Realism in the First Ten Minutes of The Full Monty

A Sense of Social Realism in the First Ten Minutes of The Full Monty

In august 1997, the smash hit comedy; The Full Monty came to the big

screen. It only cost £2.2 million but it managed to recover that in

the first weekend of it being shown in the UK. The successfulness of

the film even managed to shock actor Robert Carlyle who starred in the

film. Directed by Peter Cattaneo and produced by Umberto Pasolini,

this film is Sheffield's big claim to fame.

The opening scenes are of a promotional video that shows a happy

Sheffield but because it is shown on a small screen, it seems far

away. The old-fashioned music and cheesy voiceover also give a feeling

of something that happened along time ago and in the background you

van even hear the sound of a projector and there is the occasional

crackle on the screen. The video also shows how dependant Sheffield

and its people are on the steel industry, they even call it steel city

and says that 90,000 men are employed by the steel industry which

shows that if something was to happen to the steel industry a lot of

people would be out of work. Another way that they make the video seem

old is by using old words like discothèque. It then just leaves us

with a black screen that says in bold white writing '25 years later'.

This prepares us for the big contrast and makes sure we still know

that we are still in Sheffield.

We then have a high angle shot of Gaz, Dave and Nate walking through

the rundown old steel factory, which is all grey and dank to give a

real contrast to the video. This contrast is connected to Tzvetan

Todorov's theory, which is that the fictional environment begins with

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...ged to claim its only Oscar thanks to its score, which

is mostly a brass band type music, which runs almost continually.

Overall, the film relies on dialogue and characterization more than on

effects. The camera shots are very well thought about with lots of

close-ups revealing facial expressions and emotions and there is no

fancy editing, to make it seem like real life and not just a film.

Conclusion

In my opinion, The Full Monty is not one of the best films I have ever

but it is all right. The acting is excellent on everyone's behalf,

especially Robert Carlyle who was very good. It is a very successful

film and has even brought about its own catchphrase. I personally

think that even though it might not be my favourite film but I think

the whole crew did a very good job of creating a sense of social

realism.