20.10.2010

Equal pay feel-good

Amanda MacLean reviews Nigel Cole's (director) 'Made in Dagenham', 2010 (on general release)

Reluctant working class hero/heroine stands up for self and others and finds own voice, with lots of laughs along the way.

Sound familiar? Made in Dagenham has plenty of things to recommend it, but breaking new cinematic ground is not one of them. Instead, in its characters and plot line, it sticks a bit too firmly to well-trodden Brit-flick territory. This time, the working class heroine is Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins), one of 187 women sewing machinists at the Ford’s Dagenham plant who went out on strike for three weeks in 1968. Initially they wanted a regrading from unskilled to semi-skilled, but soon they were demanding equal pay with male workers. The strike was a milestone in the events that ultimately led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act two years later.

The film shows Rita’s evolution from a tongue-tied mother unable to stand up to her son’s bullying teacher, to a shop steward ably arguing her case with a government minister. Thankfully, Hawkins puts a lot more subtlety and nuance into acting the part than the script itself contains, and comes up with a sympathetic, believable character, who convincingly oscillates between bold and vulnerable, as she, indeed, finds her voice.

The strength and brightness of the film lie very much in Hawkins’ depiction of Rita. While the cast is strong enough, most of the characterisation is pretty much off the peg, even cartoonish at times. It is worth noting that the main female characters are some decades younger, and considerably more glamorous, than the real Dagenham women, who appear in archive footage, as the credits roll. A reminder that women over a certain age still struggle to be seen, never mind heard, in some quarters, not least the movie industry. This is not the only area where the film departs from the facts. Disappointingly, touches that seem authentic - like the women stripping to their underwear to cope with the heat in the workshop, causing Bob Hoskins’ Albert many blushes - never actually happened. And why Dagenham, rather than Merseyside, where 195 Ford machinists came out at the same time? There is a brief shot of Rita addressing a crowd there, but otherwise this aspect of the strike is glossed over entirely. But let us not nit-pick over details - although inspired by fact, this is a work of fiction, not a documentary.

As for the enemy - a pair of civil servant buffoons; cold scheming bosses; corrupt union officials in bed with the management - all provide obvious hate-figures and several good laughs. But they also allow the film to make a serious point - the Dagenham women are struggling on two fronts. First as members of the working class, being squeezed by a ruthless corporation. And secondly as women, when, as the advertising says, “It’s a man’s world” - a world that is depicted as fundamentally sexist at all levels of society. It is impossible not to take Rita’s side, as she leads the strikers in challenging it. One of the best scenes is when she, with her friend Connie (Geraldine James), is expected to sit quietly and nod while her union rep stitches them up in negotiations with the management. “Who knows what the girls are thinking?” he says. “We have no idea what’s in their heads.” But he soon finds out.

The role that the unions had in the strike has been debated, but what is certain is that they were not universally behind the women’s claim. In fact there is only one male character who is entirely sympathetic to the equal pay cause: shop steward Albert. Indeed it is he who persuades Rita to demand equal pay. Bob Hoskins plays the role with considerable warmth (he is, as he always is, mainly Bob Hoskins - but he does it so well). Otherwise, the huge majority of the workforce at the plant - ie, the men - give little or no support for the strike. The sullen response of the men is easier to understand when seen from the perspective of poor, perplexed Eddie (Daniel Mays), Rita’s husband, who gives an insight into the consternation of all those decent, hard-working husbands who genuinely could not understand why their wives should not earn less than them in the workplace, and should not spend their time at home as unpaid domestic servants. As Rita’s involvement in the strike takes her away from the usual domestic grind, Eddie is forced to step into the role of ‘mother’. Cue a number of utterly predictable scenes of Eddie struggling with the washing-up, burning the kids’ dinner and begging for a clean shirt. Still, they are well done, and rendered more amusing by Mays’ finely tuned depiction of long-suffering perplexity.

Miranda Richardson puts in a fine performance as a spiky Barbara Castle, secretary of state for employment in Harold Wilson’s government. She is a strong supporter of equal pay - in principle. In office, however, principles are put under pressure, as she attempts to curb the strength of the unions and mollify the employers at Ford (whose ludicrous argument against increasing the pay of a tiny minority of their workforce recalls more recent squabbles over the minimum wage). So, when the strikers are called to Whitehall to meet with Castle, she persuades them to settle for a pay rise that brings them closer to the male rate, but still falls well short of it. They lose their original demand for a regrading.

This is hardly a huge victory, so the mood of celebration that brings the movie to a close, as Castle announces the end of the dispute, might appear out of place. And it would be, if it were not for the fact that the Dagenham machinists’ strike was the key event that led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. Even though there are still difficulties in implementing it in practice, the act can only be viewed as a huge landmark for women’s rights - it outlawed the universally accepted pay inequality that had been a fact of working women’s lives since waged labour began. Such concessions are never won without being fought for, and without such legislation it is unlikely that many women today would be on the same rate as men. This surely justifies the upbeat ending.

And it is a feel-good movie for other reasons too. Made in Dagenham might not depict every single fact as it happened, but it still has truth in it. Does it convey the sense of solidarity and support between the strikers? Yes, absolutely. Does it get the audience wholeheartedly on the women’s side? You bet. Do the speeches inspire? Yes, they do. Will it make its viewers think more positively about industrial action?

Let’s hope so. We’re going to need it.