| The Ploughman's Lunch | |
|---|---|
 First edition cover (published screenplay) | |
| Directed by | Richard Eyre |
| Written by | Ian McEwan |
| Produced by | Simon Relph Ann Scott |
| Starring | Jonathan Pryce Tim Curry Charlie Dore Rosemary Harris Frank Finlay |
| Cinematography | Clive Tickner |
| Edited by | David Martin |
| Music by | Dominic Muldowney |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Virgin Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Ploughman's Lunch is a 1983 Britishdrama film written byIan McEwan and directed byRichard Eyre, starringJonathan Pryce,Tim Curry andRosemary Harris.
The film examines the mass media inMargaret Thatcher's Britain around the time of theFalklands War. It was part ofChannel 4'sFilm on Four strand, enjoying a critically lauded theatrical release before the television screenings.[1]
James Penfield is an ambitious London-basedBBC radio reporter, from humble origins butOxford-educated. He is commissioned to write a book on theSuez Crisis, claiming not to be a socialist; at that time, theFalklands War is dominating the British media.
He is attracted to Susan Barrington, a snobbish upper-class TV journalist, to whom he is introduced by his Oxford friend Jeremy Hancock, a fellow TV journalist. Although James is persistent, he cannot get further than a late night kiss from her and so Jeremy suggests that he contact her mother, the prominent left-wing historian Ann Barrington, who lives inNorfolk and is married to the advertising film director Matthew Fox. After learning that Ann wrote an article on the Suez Crisis on its tenth anniversary, James hopes to seduce the daughter by befriending the mother.
Now claiming in Ann's company to be a socialist, James soon finds himself spending more time with her than with her daughter; they have several long discussions and take long walks on theNorfolk Broads. Meanwhile, James' mother is dying and, James having earlier said to Susan that his parents were dead in order to disguise his origins, he is forced to identify her only as a relative when his father contacts him while he is with Ann. Returning to London, he is forced to ask for help from members of a women's peace camp after suffering a puncture. Initially mistaken for another BBC man, he shows some feigned sympathy towards the group protesting against the use of force outside a Norfolk airbase. Visiting Norfolk again a week later with an uninterested Susan, James walks alone with Ann, who kisses him and later has sex with him.
James returns to his work in London. Over aploughman's lunch and beer with Matthew Fox, Fox consents to James making love to his wife, since the two have slept in separate beds for the last three years. James refuses to take calls from Ann when she attempts to contact him at the BBC. He finally has another Oxford friend, an up-and-coming young poet, call her to end the relationship, while he sits idly by reading advertisements inExchange and Mart.
James, Jeremy and Susan travel toBrighton together in James'Jaguar to cover the 1982Conservative Party Conference. At the start of the conference, James begins to suspect that the other two are romantically involved, and asks Jeremy if he is up to something. Later, during the conference, he attempts to talk to Susan but she brushes him off; he then sees her and Jeremy caressing each other, having returned from a hotel room. The conference finishes with Thatcher's closing address as she rouses popular support following the Falklands War, and afterwards James confronts Jeremy in theBrighton Centre conference hall, rebuking him for having betrayed him; Jeremy tells him that he has known Susan for fifteen years and that they are "old allies".
James has a conversation with his publisher about the success of his book. He then attends his mother's funeral, standing grim-faced and aloof at his father's side, as he impatiently checks his watch.
InThe New York Times,Vincent Canby praised the film: "James Penfield, the journalist who glowers at the center of the fine new English filmThe Ploughman's Lunch, is a fascinating variation on all of theangry, low-born young men who populated British novels and plays in the late 1950s and 60s. Although he denies it, he is angry. At one point he says: 'You do everything right and you feel nothing. Either way.' His problem is that he feels everything all too acutely, but it doesn't make him a better person, only more devious. James Penfield is Jimmy Porter ofLook Back in Anger updated to the 1980s, specifically to London during the 1982 Falkland war and the Tory leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.The Ploughman's Lunch, the first theatrical film to be written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, is a witty, bitter tale of duplicity and opportunism in both private and public life...This is tricky stuff, butThe Ploughman's Lunch blends fact with fiction with astonishing success."[1]
Goldcrest Films invested £398,000 in the movie and received £271,000, a loss £127,000.[2]
The film was seen by 1.7 million people on UK television.[citation needed]
