Product Description

In his first starring role, Albert Finney gained international acclaim for his impressive (TheNew Yorker) portrayal of Arthur Seaton, a rebellious factory worker who lives only for his wild, carefree nights at the pub. A remarkable and influential drama that captures the despair of working class life, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is 'superbly enacted [and] one of the best ofBritain's 'angry young men dramas of the 60s. (Leonard Maltin). The sights and sounds of industrial Nottingham resonate with a grimy thud as Arthur Seaton works his tedious factory job. Through ale, women and practical jokes, he vents his frustrations against the establishments of work and marriage until his reckless ways lead him to a night that changes his life. Forced to reevaluate his convictions, Arthur must decide exactly what he stands for

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18094 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-02-05
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Customer Reviews

An unexamined, somewhat empty life

Throughout the 1950s, a group of young British writers were referred to as "angry young men" because, in their novels and plays, they excoriated what they perceived to be the dominant materialistic values of their society following World War Two. They included playwrights John Osborne and Kingsley Amis and novelists John Braine, John Wain, and Alan Silitoe. This film is based on Silitoe's novel (same title) in which he focuses on Arthur Seaton (brilliantly portrayed by Albert Finney) who endures working in a factory all week so that he can afford to drink and chase women on Saturday evening. He lives (if that's the word) day-to-day, insisting "All I want is a good time. The rest is propaganda." Arthur is intelligent enough to know how to indulge his vices but lacks the wisdom to understand that he is drinking and wenching away what few prospects he has to improve his situation. It is unclear (at least to me) whether or not Arthur really wishes to do so. While continuing an affair with Brenda (Rachel Roberts), the bored and restless wife of his foreman/supervisor Jack (Bryan Pringle), Albert also becomes involved with Doreen Gretton (Shirley Ann Field) whose own ambitions seem limited to getting married and starting a family. Revealing to me is the fact that neither Arthur nor Brenda seems especially concerned about, much less rebellious against the limits imposed on them within their class-based industrial society.

Suffocation is one of the recurring themes in James Joyce's novels and short stories. I was reminded of that recently as I again observed Arthur's self-indulgent hedonism, indifference to the feelings of others, and callous betrayal of what little he has going for him. Sooner than he realizes, there will be only quiet evenings at home on Saturday. As for his Sundays, perhaps (just perhaps) they will include a moment when he wonders where his youth went as he wearily looks ahead to another dreary week in the local factory. Yes, "the sun also rises...." And then, what will its harsh light reveal?

The Best British Film Ever
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is one of a group of so called 'kitchen sink dramas' which dominated British cinema in the early sixties. What these films brought to the screen for the first time were realistic portrails of British and in particular English working class life. This to my mind was the golden age of British film making with pictures like, This Sporting Life, Billy Liar, A Kind of Loving, Alfie, Up the Junction and Kess showing ordinary people struggling to make the best of their lot. This mood was also reflected on British TV with shows like Z Cars, Play for Today and even the early Coronation Street.

The best of this genre is Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. One thing most of these films have in common is that the hero trys to escape the limitation of his working class background. In A Kind of Loving the hero escapes into music and the middle class, In Kes, Billy Kasper escapes his hopeless situation by training and flying his hawk. In this film however Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney) sees no point in getting out. All he wants from life is to earn enough money to spend his weekends drinking and chasing women. Not that Arthur is unintelligent he just sees everything in life, politics, ambition and married life as phoney. Arthur wants to remain free of society's demand to comform either to marriage or to moving on and 'bettering himself'

Rachel Roberts and Shirley Ann Fields give great performances as Arthur's love or rather sex interest and Albert Finney is perfect as the cynical Arthur Seaton. The film ends with Arthur accepting marriage to Doreen (Fields) but telling her not to expect him to confirm all the time ( It will not be the last stone I will throw.)

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning captures a certain time and place and for any American viewers who want to know, is it an accurate a portrail of working class sixties England? I can assure them that it is.

Apart from those films about Britain's Asian communities, no British film today shows the British working class with making out that all it contains are thieves, druggies and gangsters.
The only exception being Mike Leigh's work.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a gem. A product of it's time and a piece of social history on a par with Dickens.

Working Class Zero
I have seen a few of the "angry young Brit" movies of the late 50's and early 60's lately. "This Sporting Life", "Look Back in Anger", and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" leave a picture of a society that offers little except a tedious life with limited rewards. The Richard Harris character in "This Sporting Life" at least had an opportunity to reach beyond but he was ultimately reminded where he belonged. These movies left me wondering why British life in that era seemed so incredibly boring while in America things were really hopping. The Beatles changed all that but then watching "The Fully Monty" gave me the impression that the deadend life had returned.

It's hard to get excited about all this dreariness but I'm certain that the directors had a point to make. Maybe it was a Dickensian version of the "youth will be served" motto. The anger, the fighting, the drinking, the love/hate relationships with women all portrayed a life without joy. Personally, I thought that "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" was the best of the lot. Although Albert Finney might be a slight notch below Richards Burton and Harris, I felt his was the more compelling character; lost, aimless, but not willing to take it sitting down. He seemed to care for no one but himself (a common trait of the leading men in these movies) and was ready to sacrifice just about anybody to keep his life at least somewhat enjoyable. Burton was just plain angry and Harris was obsessed with his game but Finney used the people around him as pawns for his own entertainment. One of those individuals was played by Rachel Roberts who played the same sort of role in "This Sporting Life".

Some movies make you happy and some make you think. This limited genre of film seems to make you think you'd be happy to watch something else instead. Yet there is the life that must be lived in a society that has predetermined where you belong. These movies may impress many a viewer and I have to admit that the acting and directing is superb in all three of the movies I cited from that era. However, I came away from each one gladder than before that I spent those years in Middle America rather than Great Britain.