MovieChat Forums > Brassed Off (1996) Discussion > But didn't the miners vote for redundanc...

But didn't the miners vote for redundancy?


And doesn't that make them, well, responsible?

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[deleted]

Right, but they were working in the film?

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To understand the plot of Brassed Off, you need to know what went on in the 1992-4 period, just before privatisation. These events (unlike the 1984-5 strike) have largely been forgotten. This means that a lot of people think that the film is set during the strike, when it's actually set ten years later.

A lot of miners who had struck for a year voted for redundancy once it was on offer, as they had lost the will to fight and thought that the struggle had all been in vain. That is the central concept of Brassed Off. Just like in the film, many of the Yorkshire pits voted overwhelmingly for redundancy, even though hardly anyone had broken the strike there in 1984 (Frickley in South Elmsall is a good example here). In addition, one miner is confronted by his wife for having done nothing in 1994 to save the pit after having been so full of fight in 1984. The final speech by Danny also talks about losing the will to fight, live, breathe, etc. as they had no hope left.

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I think some of them saw the writing on the wall - they knew there was no hope. The payout for redundancy was better than nothing, which is what they'd have gotten if they'd voted otherwise.

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