A documentary on how the spirit of unity, which buoyed Britain during the war years, carried through to create a vision of a fairer, united society.
Ken Loach celebrates Labour’s post-1945 programme of nationalisation and mourns the dismantling of British Rail, the NHS and the welfare state. His outrage is unmistakable, but so is his refusal to engage with any opposing views.
Often fascinating and impassioned, Loach's doc lapses into polemic towards the end, an understandable side-effect of his granite-strong convictions. Probably won't get it onto Margaret Thatcher's LoveFilm list though.
Despite the best efforts of its contributors, The Spirit of '45 lacks passion and colour, the latter quite literally. This is undeniably an admirable film but it would have benefited from a little more of the titular spirit.
Viewers of the opposing political persuasion may instantly gripe about a lack of balance – there’s nothing but adoring words for trade unions – but demanding balance from a Ken Loach film is a little like wanting a goat to do a handstand.
The irony is that Loach's misty-eyed view of socialism wouldn't even be recognised by today's Labour Party. But politics isn't the problem here; it's dull and hectoring cinema.
The Loach '45 spirit may be mocked – yet it seems preferable to the 21st-century spirit of austerity and paradox in which we found money to nationalise failing banks, maintaining the spirit of what Milton Friedman called socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.
Ken at his worst.
Poignant, polemical.
Hmm. Exactly the film you’d expect to see, and not in a good way.
By turns moving, angering, and inspiring, Spirit of '45 is in fact a very personal plea. And yet we are left with a sense that we have only been told half the story.
There are heartening moments in Loach's film and evocative images. But The Spirit of '45 lacks the force and humanity of his fictional films and is a thin, misleading and sentimental account of history, and how we got from there to here.
What this film does magnificently is capture the hope of the many at the birth of the social-democratic era.
In short, old-school labour and social collectivism: good, Thatcherism: bad.
Ken Loach on his new political film The Spirit of '45
General release. Check local listings for show times.