Capsule Film Review: The Spirit of '45 (2013)

in #film5 years ago (edited)

Today nostalgic view of the past is more likely to be found among people whose politics is on the Left than those on the Right. One example of such phenomenon could be found in The Spirit of ‘45, 2013 documentary by British leftist filmmaker Ken Loach. In it he chronicles what was arguably the greatest achievement of British Left in 20th Century. In Summer of 1945, only few months after winning WW2, British voters tossed out Conservative Party of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill and brought to power Labour Party, which had socialism explicitly named as main part of their electoral platform. New government brought radical and far reaching changes into British economy and society – nationalisation of coal, railways, electricity, introduction of social housing and, finally, National Health Service. Loach describes those events through interviews with eyewitnesses who emotionally describe poverty and despair of pre-war years and compare it with small post-war changes that made their lives exponentially better. He then compares bright post-war years with gloom of 1970s and 1980s when Margaret Thatcher dismantled most of British welfare state. Loach, known for wearing radical leftist views on his sleave, doesn’t pretend any objectivity and fails to explain why British socialist utopia never happened. His film is nevertheless an interesting, and times, quite moving history lesson.

RATING: 6/10

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