Did anyone find the film 'Cathy Come Home' really depressing? I walked out of the screening and felt that most of us pretty lucky. Sad that this still happens today though.
I've just watched on You Tube. Actually I really enjoyed it. I think mainly because I think poverty is real and I think Loach did a really good job of conveying in small snippets the process of a family falling into poverty and how it can so easily happen, particularly with a bit of bad luck or misfortune and when there are small mouths to feed. Cathy Come Home is about hope, holding onto hope and losing hope, about family solidarity and a mother who loves her children no matter what her circumstances are, and a father torn apart by that fact that he can't provide for his loved ones. I think it is terrible that poverty and homelessness are still out there, and it is wrong and sad that it exists. I don't know what the answers are. However from a reality TV point of view, I think Loach did an amazing job of hooking in his audience and making them understand that poverty is real. I think the point is that even fifty years later he is still able to provoke discussion on poverty and homelessness.
I agree with both of you completely. I too found the movie quite real and depressing especially because unfortunately poverty still exists today. I agree with you Sam that Loach did a great job in showing the reality of homelessness and how much of a problem is it, by portraying the characters so personally i found myself hoping for them and really wanting them to be able to pull themselves out of the situation they found themselves in. Also the use of a handheld camera effect that Loach used made it more realistic and in some ways it felt like a home video that the family had shared about they way they were living. This probably added to why it made me feel quite upset while watching it.
I agree with you guys, it was so depressing. Especially the ending. Mike was telling me on the way out of class that the last scene filmed at the train station had no extras in the background, the only actors were cathy and her children, and the social workers. It was so shocking that all the other people in the background who just stood around and watched did nothing to help. The whole film, after the car-crash, just had this heartbreaking feeling of utter desperation. Loach did an incredible job of making you feel so much. I loved the constant running snippets of story being told by various people Cathy encountered or was surrounded by. It gave a really overwhelming feeling of unity in their suffering, something I think was really important in the message behind the film - that yes, this happened to a family and their children, but not just this family, thousands and thousands of families. It was shocking. I agree with you Emily, that the use of camera angles and handycams gave the feeling of a home video, of life and memories unfolded, and the lowered angles, and long shots gave the feeling of a passive observer. It kind of made you feel helpless too, like you want to help them, but all you can do is watch. Cathy Come Home was easily one of the most incredible films I've ever seen. It kind of reminded me of "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things," as a film for some of the themes though the stories are different (though they both deal with homelessness/nomadic living), if anybody else has seen the movie adaptation of that.
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ReplyDeleteI've just watched on You Tube. Actually I really enjoyed it. I think mainly because I think poverty is real and I think Loach did a really good job of conveying in small snippets the process of a family falling into poverty and how it can so easily happen, particularly with a bit of bad luck or misfortune and when there are small mouths to feed. Cathy Come Home is about hope, holding onto hope and losing hope, about family solidarity and a mother who loves her children no matter what her circumstances are, and a father torn apart by that fact that he can't provide for his loved ones. I think it is terrible that poverty and homelessness are still out there, and it is wrong and sad that it exists. I don't know what the answers are. However from a reality TV point of view, I think Loach did an amazing job of hooking in his audience and making them understand that poverty is real. I think the point is that even fifty years later he is still able to provoke discussion on poverty and homelessness.
DeleteI agree with both of you completely. I too found the movie quite real and depressing especially because unfortunately poverty still exists today. I agree with you Sam that Loach did a great job in showing the reality of homelessness and how much of a problem is it, by portraying the characters so personally i found myself hoping for them and really wanting them to be able to pull themselves out of the situation they found themselves in. Also the use of a handheld camera effect that Loach used made it more realistic and in some ways it felt like a home video that the family had shared about they way they were living. This probably added to why it made me feel quite upset while watching it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you guys, it was so depressing. Especially the ending. Mike was telling me on the way out of class that the last scene filmed at the train station had no extras in the background, the only actors were cathy and her children, and the social workers. It was so shocking that all the other people in the background who just stood around and watched did nothing to help. The whole film, after the car-crash, just had this heartbreaking feeling of utter desperation. Loach did an incredible job of making you feel so much. I loved the constant running snippets of story being told by various people Cathy encountered or was surrounded by. It gave a really overwhelming feeling of unity in their suffering, something I think was really important in the message behind the film - that yes, this happened to a family and their children, but not just this family, thousands and thousands of families. It was shocking. I agree with you Emily, that the use of camera angles and handycams gave the feeling of a home video, of life and memories unfolded, and the lowered angles, and long shots gave the feeling of a passive observer. It kind of made you feel helpless too, like you want to help them, but all you can do is watch. Cathy Come Home was easily one of the most incredible films I've ever seen. It kind of reminded me of "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things," as a film for some of the themes though the stories are different (though they both deal with homelessness/nomadic living), if anybody else has seen the movie adaptation of that.
ReplyDelete