Still the Enemy Within
'The Enemy Within' is an award winning documentary that gives a unique insight into one of History's most dramatic events: the 1984-85 British Miners' Strike No experts. No Politicians. Thirty years on, this is the raw emotional story of those who drove Britain's longest strike. The film weaves stunningly edited archive footage of the strike and never before seen interviews with the real key players of the strike: the miners themselves, accompanied by a soulful, timely soundtrack. It is ultimately a universal tale of ordinary people standing up for what they believe in. It challenges us to look again at our past so that in the words of one miner 'we can still seek to do something about the future'.
Watch the trailer (2:26) here:
http://vimeo.com/96834463
Mike Simons presentant
@EnemyWithin1984 al
#CineclubManresa.
Reaction to UK Premiere:
Connected to another lovely film about
communities .... PRIDE -(2015)
in our blog: here
reviews
my choices:
1- Gary Collinson - Sep 2014
The highest praise I can pay this film is that it helped to widen my political view on what happened during that year and understand how it affected the entire political landscape even up to today. If you get a chance to see Still the Enemy Within in the cinema or on its continued tour of the UK, no matter what your political view, I implore you to not miss the opportunity.
2- William Brownridge -Jan 2015
It’s a little bit shocking to see the extent to which the government would go to bring down the unions, all in favour of profit. It crushed the workforce, and still continues to have ripples in the economy. It’s a relevant warning to people now, as the question of what power the working class holds seems to be rising over and over. It’s possible to bring change, if we can only stand together.
– a documentary as gripping as a thriller
3 -The Guardian - 4/5 stars
Peter Bradshaw - Oct 2014
Owen Gower’s film about striking miners is a heartfelt tribute to communities hammered by political forces
Peter Bradshaw - Oct 2014
Owen Gower’s film about striking miners is a heartfelt tribute to communities hammered by political forces
Owen Gower’s documentary about the striking miners of 1984 and 85 is as gripping as any thriller. Thirty years on, the strike looks like a civil war that turned into a siege, during which the insurgents were starved into submission. One side was ruthlessly strategic, able to mobilise well-trained, well-paid unformed battalions. It was overwhelmingly supported by the press – who accepted the view that farmers were allowed to be “uneconomic” – and bankers with the Johnson Matthey bailout. But not miners. The Conservative government planned nothing less than the emasculation of union power by abolishing the domestic coal industry, and was quite uninterested in what all those irredeemable non-Tory voters were supposed to do for a living afterwards.
Before the hostilities began, the miners had been bamboozled into creating the coal stockpile the government needed to ride out the big confrontation. Once the strike began, the National Union of Mineworkers lost two crucial battles: to picket Nottingham non-strikers, and to block power-plant coal supplies at Orgreave. TUC comrades failed to come out in sympathy in the autumn, and then a long, cruel winter set in as the strike crumbled. Gower’s film is a heartfelt tribute to the communities who were hammered by political, not economic, forces. They look bloodied, but unbowed.
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