Do you have to be a boring lefty to enjoy the films of Ken Loach? The reason I ask is, the British Film Institute have just rereleased three of Loach’s finest films on DVD, and though I loved them when they first came out, when I sat down to watch them again, after twenty years, my heart sank. Why? Because nowadays, when people mention Ken Loach, I don’t think of his masterpieces like Kes (one of the greatest British movies ever made) so much as his dreary appearances on political discussion programmes like Question Time.
Ken Loach is a socialist filmmaker – whatever that means. If you’re a socialist, maybe that makes his movies even more enjoyable. Who knows? But what if you’re not a socialist, or even particularly left wing? I’d say it spoils them, because his political opinions can’t help but colour the way you watch his films. It distances them from anyone who doesn’t share his point of view.
But isn’t Ken Loach’s socialism integral to his movie-making? This is a man, after all, who made a film about Jeremy Corbyn for Labour’s general election campaign, and got an effusive shout-out from John McDonnell in his latest Labour conference speech: ‘I’d like to thank Ken Loach for that wonderful film and thank Ken for his incredible contribution to our movement,’ gushed McDonnell yesterday.
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