by rogerco on Thu 31st Dec 2020 DVD proj @ home

A True Story, Truly Told

Summary

Those were the days...when protest involved physical action, not clicktivism. Explosives (Angry Brigade), spades (Stop Apartheid) and vegetables (Women's Lib), not "social" media.

Full review

Truly told given the testimonies of the participants (still living and mostly still radical) given in the DVD 'extras' interviews.

Personally I was 18 at the time (Nov'70) and in my first term at Uni - I remember nothing of the event (no TV, didn't read the papers much) and I don't event remember it being discussed. I do remember that the Miss World contest was considered by young men my age to be pretty tacky since the late 60's - like racism, there was a rising awareness in the hippie generation that women were generally treated pretty badly in The Man's world.

The film tells the story very well, it is entertaining, well paced, well acted. The relationship between Sally (Keira Knightley) and her partner is not explored (he seems a bit bemused). The politics behind the rise of the women's lib (or indeed the anti-apartheid and Angry Brigade movements which were also on the case) is beyond what the film could reasonably be expected to cover. Also the consequences, both for the women's movement and the racist backlash against the result, are not properly mentioned.

It focuses on telling the story of the action itself, some of the details are clearly tweaked for dramatic effects (eg Jo Robinson's recollection doesn't mention sitting next to Sally Alexandria), but it makes a good story.

Lovely to see some of the details - silk screening posters from stencils, life in a communal squat - which were common currency in activist circles then.