Made in Dagenham: perky comedy-drama that’s a little shallow but enjoyable nevertheless

Nigel Cole, “Made in Dagenham”, BBC Films / UK Film Council (2010)
 
Much in the vein of other British comedy-dramas that revolve around social and economic problems faced by working class people and how they deal with them – think of “Brassed Off” and “The Full Monty” which dealt with coal mine closures and mass unemployment – this film is a brisk fictional dramatisation of the fight by a group of women machinists for equal pay and recognition of their skills against their employer Ford Motors in Dagenham in 1968. The story of their struggle centres around Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins) who we first meet as a shy young worker, married to another Ford Motors employee at the same plant and raising two school-age children in their apartment on an estate close to the plant. Rita and her co-workers sit at machines furiously stitching together car-seat covers in hot, stifling conditions in a basement whose ceiling leaks badly whenever there is a storm. Rita seems an unprepossessing candidate for a firebrand leader for social and political change when early on she confronts her son’s teacher for caning the child for no reason and the fellow harangues her for her social and economic background, implying that this makes her a “bad” parent. Upset and close to tears, Rita flees the classroom, bumping into another woman (Rosamund Pike). Not a good start, it seems.
 
Encouraged and supported by the plant’s shop steward Albert (Bob Hoskins in an undemanding role) and co-worker Connie (Geraldine James), Rita finds the confidence and inner steel to speak up before the Ford Motors management and her union representatives to demand equal pay for work of equal skill as the male Ford workers are getting. The women machinists throw their full weight behind Rita and go on indefinite strike. Their action is noticed by the media, one thing starts to lead to another, and Rita and the other women are plunged into a round of union meetings, more demonstrations and an invitation to speak to women machinists at another Ford Motors plant who also go on strike. In the meantime, Rita’s husband (Daniel Mays) valiantly tries to manage the household. Ford Motors retaliates by shutting down its Dagenham plant, throwing the men out of work and into conflict with the women, and threatening to shut down its entire UK operations altogether if the women continue with their campaign.
 
The film does try – not successfully – to show that the women’s fight isn’t all smooth sailing. Rita comes perilously close to losing her husband and home, Connie’s involvement indirectly leads to her husband’s suicide and a young worker, Sandra (Jaime Winstone), is tempted by the Ford Motors management to model for a series of advertisements. The movie’s energy and upbeat mood steam-roll across the short episodes of tension, conflict and tragedy which is unfortunate as these periods are necessary to give audiences pause for thought and quiet away from the “on-on-on!” pace of the film and to round out the characters as three-dimensional human beings with lives away from the shop floor. Where the film does succeed is in detailing the general extent of sexual discrimination against women as a group: we become aware that in 1968 the discrimination was widespread across class divisions (the male workers at the Dagenham plant do not support the women strikers and the management tries to exploit this apathy) and many women themselves, represented by the lady Rita brushes past early on at her son’s school, internalised this discrimination as their lot in life: the stranger turns out to be a university graduate who allows her Ford Motors senior manager husband to intimidate her and treat her like a slave. In spite of her intelligence and poise, the woman, hamstrung by her class, can only offer Rita minimal support in the form of a bright red frock to wear to her meeting with starchy UK politician Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson). Watching this film, you could learn nearly as much about men’s attitudes and treatment of women and the women’s meek acceptance of such treatment in the 1960’s as from watching several episodes of “Mad Men”; there’s the added benefit of seeing how corporations used these attitudes as weapons to divide and beat working-class people and sap their collective strength, and that not even Castle was immune from being patronised by people supposedly working with and for her.
 
I wish I could say that Hawkins portrays Rita as a woman who, in the process of becoming a leader, discovers a new self and goes through significant personal change but with the way the film charges ahead once Rita challenges the union reps, her character quickly gets locked into an onwards-and-upwards rut. There’s little opportunity from then on for Hawkins as Rita to express self-doubt, anxiety and feelings of losing control over aspects of her life, and to plead with her husband and others to support the women’s cause. Without some character development, Rita becomes a bit of a stock character and her husband is reduced to wallpaper support, and an opportunity to see them both grow and develop as human beings is lost. Hoskins’s mentoring character is also reduced to cheerleader status as a result. The drama around Connie and her husband, traumatised by his war experiences, is sketchy and viewers have to guess at why he commits suicide. The actors around Hawkins provide great support and with the exception of Richardson’s slapstick scenes don’t compete for attention. Perhaps as a result, in the few scenes where both Hawkins and Richardson are absent, the film tends to stall a little, the dynamism falters and viewers will feel like yelling “Bring Rita BACK!”
 
Details like fashion, hair-styles and the music of the period add colour and zip to the film and account for some of that perky, energetic mood that must have swept the film crew and the script-writers along with the actors. For all its shortcomings, this is an enjoyable film with a positive message for all those who suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves, like Rita, thrust into positions they feel unsuited for.

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