Made in Dagenham is a fascinating true story about a group of British ladies working at a Ford motor company that demand equal pay to the men working in the plant. Led by a very talented Sally Hawkins as Rita O’Grady, Hawkins captures the very essence of the 60s wife, who blooms from irrelevance to a hardened leader of a union movement. What’s positively brilliant about this film is how Hawkins slowly transforms her character. She starts out as the shy mouse, who has no interest in speaking out for what clearly needs shouted out and ends up developing into this ‘take no sh*t’ type of character.
It’s subtle and slow, but that’s the way the transformation has to occur for this story to work well.
As for the overall story, I didn’t know how good it was going to be until around the middle. Much like Rita, the build is very subtle, but it’s there. By the time your interest is trapped you fully understand how this thing is going to end up. The fun part (if you want to call this fun) is seeing exactly how effective this one act from this insignificant group of ladies turned out to be for the country of England. It also told a wonderful tale of the positive side of unions (and regretfully the negative) and how powerful shutting down a small segment of a large company can be; it was a wonderful domino effect.
What makes the story emotional is how the ladies have to fight against society’s attitude towards women, how they have to fight against their own union’s attitude towards women and how they must keep going even though it’s collapsing friends/families around them. It’s a great set of emotional rollercoaster hills that are evenly paced out.
So are there any downsides to the story? I wish they had established a few relationships in the story before they made the characters involved significant. For example, Geraldine James’ character, Connie, plays a heavily supportive role in the story. She is almost the mentor, if there is one, for Rita. Towards the end of the film we find a strained relationship between her sick husband and her. We never really get to know her husband and his beef with what she is doing with the union, but it’s powerful enough to keep Connie away from Rita. The reason to separate Connie from Rita is weak at best and really isn’t relevant to the overall story. It can be said that it’s a road bump, but it’s a worthless road bump. Anyway, there are a few tiny moments where the story seems oddly diverted and never gets properly explained or tied up, but not too many moments to ruin the film.
Ultimately, this film is damn entertaining, but much like the protest it’s direct, subtle and it has some flaws.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film it looks smashing. I’ve always been high on BBC productions, mainly due to the fantastic acting and great settings, and Made in Dagenham is no exception. With beautiful, sometimes dreary, British backdrops there is a lot to like with how this was shot and how it was transferred beautifully to HD. There’s something fun about the 60s and that shines through with remarkably fun colors in costumes and interesting household arrangements that allow for great lighting. All of these things make for a great looking production on Blu-ray.
With that said, let’s talk features. You get the following on this Blu-ray:
– Outtakes
– Deleted Scenes
– Commentary with director Nigel Cole
– The Making of Made in Dagenham
While the outtakes are always refreshing for a serious drama like this, the real beef of this story lies within the ‘making of’ featurette. You get to know the story, see some great insight and generally get to know what was happening when the film was being made (and how it compared with the true story). It’s good stuff and it works well. Cole’s commentary is solid as well.