Miles Paulley looks back at the career of one of Britain’s most controversial filmmakers.
If you ever mention the phrase ‘ British film makers’ to any self-respecting film buff, they will usually end your sentence with ‘Ken Loach’. If you mention The Wednesday Play - an initiative from the BBC to prove its threshold on quality programming - then your counterpart will nine times out of ten inform you of films such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home, both of which pushed Kenneth Loach into the limelight and secured his reputation as a filmmaker with real social understanding.
A continual theme of Loach’s work lies in his strict concentration on showing the struggle of the working class; for him this is reality, for him, this is how the medium should be used. This is both refreshing and hard-hitting for his viewers, many of whom see him as their voice against the masquerade of their government and the general media. To quote the man himself:
"I turned down the OBE because it's not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who've got it. It's all the things I think are despicable: patronage, deferring to the monarchy and the name of the British Empire, which is a monument of exploitation and conquest." (1)
Many have criticised Loach’s perception of his subjects, particularly as his films have the appearance of being naturalistic and therefore ‘real’; these critics feel that his approach misleads the viewer as to the whole truth of the subject matter. However, these criticisms mainly come from those who do not wish for Loach’s voice to be heard (particularly as they are the ones whom Loach’s audiences subsequently attack). This helps me highlight a key strength in Loach’s films: the discussions and debates which surround his screenings. This is perhaps the driving motivation in all of his creations and something for which he is notoriously known. The epitome of this is the public debate that followed Cathy Come Home, which resolved itself by forcing the government to establish Shelter, a homeless charity which has helped endless people on the lower end of the social ladder. Later in his career, Loach found his strong opinions to get the better of him, as his four-part series Questions ofLeadership was not commissioned for broadcast due to its lack of balance on the subject of the 1984 miners’ strike. This must have been a frustrating time for Loach, but nevertheless, the banning of its broadcast once again sparked discussions across the nation.
Loach’s profound interest in the working class stems from his own beginnings; his father was an electrician in a machines factory, perhaps encouraging the young Kenneth Loach to pursue a dream of putting his world across to the public, and the best way to do this was through the ever-growing television industry. Loach has clearly always been a bright person and his acceptance to study law at Oxford clearly underlines his enthusiasm to question the world around him. At university, Loach also pursued his interest in the performing arts. Eventually, he became the president of the schools’ Experimental Theatre Club, where he developed his skills of creating rounded characters as well as an understanding for structure and performance, all of which would help him as his career developed.
In 1963, the BBC launched its second channel, enticing the determined Loach to finish his sponsorship from ABC TV. He returned to the BBC as a trainee director. His first undertaking as director was Catherine in 1964; the film was a personal achievement as it gave Loach a foothold as a director. However, perhaps by a stroke of fate, he directed Tony Garnett, who would later play a major/equal part in Loach’s career.
It was with Garnett as partner that Loach made some of his most memorable films. It was with Garnett that he made Cathy Come Home and Up the Junction. Together, the two socialists created a platform which encouraged future filmmakers to produce programmes which questioned their authorities. Together, they would make films which epitomised the BBC and would eventually become the heart of its worldwide reputation.
Once Loach was established as a credible director, he ventured out of the immediate BBC domain and started his own film company with Garnett called Kestrel Productions, which would come to symbolise their reputation through their first production Kes. Kes became an acclaimed British film and is perhaps his best-known. This delicate and sensitive film portrays genuine themes of the times and can definitely be used as historical reference points for any future viewer, but the authenticity of many of his films isn’t as easy to obtain, as the modest director will acknowledge.
Why are his films so hard-hitting? And why have they been able to be used as a catalyst for public debate? It’s not easy for any filmmaker to make a film which the audience will not just see as entertainment. To make a film seem authentic and legitimate requires more concentration and focus on the smaller aspects of filmmaking. This is something Ken Loach has seemed to take hold of in a distinct and personal way. What’s more, he made Cathy Come Home and Up the Junction during times of real social upheaval and indifference, when funding and technology restricted the creative freedom of a filmmaker. This said, however, films had begun moving out of the studio into real locations. For both films, Loach and Garnett were adamant that they should shoot on 16mm, specifically during location shooting, which therefore gave them a style closer to cinéma vérité (which tends to look like news broadcasts). The hand-held camera work projected the notion of immediacy. This is the clue as to why his films affected so many people; they were seen as being real.
But surely this isn’t the only reason for Loach’s success. He integrates other aspects of the production exceedingly well with the shooting style to bring the whole direction of his productions together. The most notable of these is his attention to detail with his actors. He is known to pick fewer professional actors to coincide with the naturalistic ambience of his films and he restricts his actors’ knowledge to what’s happening in each scene. There are countless examples, but one which stands out is his decision not to tell his young actor in Kes about the ending. His decision to show the boy a real dead kestrel created a true response from the actor, as he thought Loach had actually killed the real Kes. This strategy helps in the pursuit of realism and really is something few directors adhere to. Furthermore, Loach creates a feeling of intimacy within the world of his characters, by which I mean, we become close (and interested) in the small and intricate happenings of those characters. In these ways, Loach is able to make a bigger statement about the social and political realities of the times.
During the seventies, Garnett decided to pursue his own directing career and left for Hollywood. Loach was left in Britain under the Conservative government. During this time, true to himself, he focused more on documentaries to fight against the political system. In the eighties, Loach found it hard to distribute his films due to censorship entanglements. A Question of Leadership was banned, and still is to this day. Furthermore, Loach’s Which Side Are You On? had its screening blocked by Melvyn Bragg, who had actually commissioned him to make the programme, but decided against showing it after its footage of police brutality.
However, Loach can’t be knocked down that easily and proved his eye for current affairs during the 1990s, but - need I say it - through the eyes of the working class. During this period, Loach developed a relationship with the emerging and powerful Channel 4. But Loach did not change in his goals and still focused on issues such as alcoholism, drug abuse, family difficulties and politics. Films such as Riff Raff (1991) and Sweet Sixteen (2002) are some of his best-known works in this period, and are films I would recommend.
Kenneth Loach has had a prolific output in a career which has spanned over forty years. There aren’t many other film makers who can tick this box. He has won film awards across Europe (his films are successful there) and has his fans tentatively waiting for his next production. Loach’s most recent film The Wind That Shakes The Barley has won him the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It concentrates on the conflict between the Irish Republicans and their fight against the British during the 1920s. He’s certainly picked a topic which will cause outrage and, of course, heated debates around Europe, but no-one will be happier than he.
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