Jimmys Hall (2014)

Credits: Director: Ken Loach. Screenplay: Paul Laverty. Cinematography: Robbie Ryan.
Editor: Jonathan Morris. Music: George Fenton. Art Director: Stephen Daly. Sound: Ray
Beckett. Costume designer: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh. UK- Ireland-France. Deluxe
colour. 109 minutes.
Cast: Barry Ward (Jimmy Gralton), Simone Kirby (Oonagh), Aileen Henry (Jimmys
mother), Jim Norton (Father Sheridan), Andrew Scott (Father Seamus), Brian F OByrne
(OKeefe), Rebecca OMara (Nora OKeefe).
The director, Ken Loach, does not simply wear his heart on his sleeve, he puts it on the big
screen for all to see. Jimmys Hall, which he has declared will be his last film, is vintage
Loach. For the film he returns to rural Ireland, the setting for his prize-winning The Wind
That Shakes the Barley (2006). The war the director is concerned with here is not that of the
Irish against the imperialist British, nor the civil war that followed, it is one that Loach has
waged all his cinematic life. It is the struggle of the poor against the rich, the dispossessed
against the landed gentry, ordinary people against the establishment - which in Ireland
includes the Catholic church - them against us. Who else but Loach, in an age when the left
is in retreat all across the world, would portray a hero who is unashamedly a Communist?
Jimmy Gralton, played by Barry Ward, returns to Ireland in the early thirties, after an absence
of 10 years in America. He has come back after the death of his brother to work on the
family farm and to help his mother. He is urged by the young members of the area to reopen
a hall which he had built, as a co-operative venture with like-minded companions, as a
meeting place for the local community. It has fallen into disrepair and Jimmy is persuaded to
get it going again. It resumes the activities it was built for, lessons - in language and poetry,
arts and crafts, during the day and entertainment - music and dancing in the evenings. With a
windup gramophone Jimmy has brought back he introduces a new element from America,
jazz and modern dancing. He meets again the woman Oonagh (Simone Kirby) with whom he
had been, and still is, in love. She is now married with two children and though the spark
between them is rekindled it does not develop into a passionate relationship. A silent dance
together in a deserted hall is all that takes place between them. In the world of Ken, along
with left-wing radicalism, chivalry and honour are very much alive.
The activities in the hall bring Jimmy and his companions into conflict with the Catholic
church, in the person of the local priest played with implacable hostility by Jim Norton. His
objections start with teaching activities in the hall, education being the sole preserve of the
church, and as for foreign music, jazz, and dancing, with its origins in black America, well
that is surely the way to hell and damnation. He wages open warfare against such sinful
behaviour, and proceeds to name and shame in church, all who attend. As in all Loachs
films, the Dickens of British cinema, the bad guys are villainous and the good are very good
with no shades of grey in between. The local laird punishes his daughter cruelly for going to
dances in the hall, he evicts a poor widow with five children from his estate. Jimmy and his
comrades in arms stand up for the oppressed. It is a struggle between unequal forces which
they cannot win. Jimmy is forced to go on the run and into exile once again but not before he
has gained an important victory. He has won the hearts and minds of the young.

Those who criticise Ken Loach for lack of subtlety in his films, miss the point. Dickenss
public readings were very popular and crowds flocked to hear him. At the end of the
screening of Jimmys Hall in a packed theatre in Belfast, the members of the audience reacted
in a way they rarely do in the cinema, they applauded enthusiastically. Please Ken, dont go
into retirement just yet. Stay and rage a little longer.
Vidya Borooah
28 June 2014