The Full Monty
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| The Full Monty | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Cattaneo |
| Produced by | Uberto Pasolini |
| Written by | Simon Beaufoy |
| Starring | Robert Carlyle Mark Addy William Snape Steve Huison Tom Wilkinson Paul Barber |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) |  13 August 1997 29 August 1997 16 October 1997 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
- This article is about the film. For the musical, see The Full Monty (musical).
The Full Monty is a 1997 Academy Award-winning British comedy film. It tells the story of six unemployed steel workers who decide to form a male striptease act. Despite being a comedy, the film also touches on serious subjects such as unemployment, fathers' rights, depression and attempted suicide.
The Full Monty is set in Sheffield, England, and stars Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber, and Hugo Speer. The screenplay by Simon Beaufoy was adapted from an original story by co-producer Paul Bucknor. The film was directed by Peter Cattaneo.
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[edit] Plot
Gary "Gaz" Schofield (Robert Carlyle) and Dave (Mark Addy) are desperate to make some money, going so far as to try stealing steel beams from the abandoned factory they used to work at. When Gaz finds out that his ex-wife wants full custody of his young son, Nathan, because he's 700 quid in arrears, Gaz has the idea of stripping to make money. He originally gets the idea from seeing Dave's wife Jean with some friends at a male strip-club, reasoning that if the Chippendales dancers can do it, so can he. Slowly, he assembles a group of similarly desperate men, including his former foreman, Gerald Arthur Cooper (Tom Wilkinson).
Film opening: The year is 1972, and the place is "Sheffield...the beating heart of Britain's industrial north", as described by the narrator in a short film visualizing the city's economic prosperity, borne out of Sheffield's highly successful steel industry. The film shows busy steel mills, producing everything from kitchen cutlery to tensile girders, along with the runoff from the mills...successful retail establishments, nightclubs, and attractive housing. The film concludes with "Thanks to steel, Sheffield really is a city on the move!"
Fast forward to a quarter century later. The same town, but in a far different light than that of the early 70's. The once-successful steel mills of then have grown brown with rust, rolling equipment has been removed, and the lines are silent. Gaz and Dave are inside their former workplace trying to get a steel beam out of the mill with the intent of selling it. They attempt to get the beam out of the mill by securing it to the roof of a car, which promptly sinks. Undaunted, they try to salvage the beam, but their attempts prove futile.
Gaz is later informed by his ex-wife that she intends to take court action against him for the child support payments that he's failed to make since losing his job. Compromising the situation further is Gaz's son Nathan, who spends time with his father basically out of reluctance. He grows tired of his father's seemingly lack of motivation to do something with his life and get his act together.
While Gaz, Dave, and Nathan are walking down a street, they see a line of women gathered for a Chippendales show outside a pub they frequently go to. Intrigued by the women's willingness to stand in line for a strip tease act, Gaz is convinced that his ship has finally come in: he decides to organize a similar act of his own, with the intent to earn enough money to pay for his child support obligations.
One of the first people that Dave and Gaz approach is their former foreman Gerald, whom they witness attending a dance class with his wife. They later approach him about giving them lessons, but Gerald rebuffs them with insults, telling them he's on his way to a job interview. Gaz and Dave tail Gerald to the interview, where they distract him from outside the office window to the point where he blows the interview. He confronts them both at Jobclub and physically assaults Gaz, revealing that had he been successful, he would have been able to conceal his unemployment from his wife, who is still spending money not knowing that her husband has been out of work all this time.
A despondent Gerald leaves Jobclub and sits on a park bench, all but emotionally defeated. Gary and Gaz patch things up with Gerald and tell him of their scheme. With literally no options left, Gerald agrees to be the act's choreographer.
Another who joins the act is Lomper, a security guard at Harrison's, the steel mill where Dave, Gaz, and Gerald once worked. After Lomper finally loses his job long after the mill shuts down, he tries to commit suicide by asphyxiating himself in his car through carbon monoxide poisoning. Dave pulls him out, much to Lomper's protests. With newfound friends, Lomper is also added to the lineup.
In a sequence of darkly comic scenes, various former co-workers of Gaz and Dave are made to perform a strip-tease for them as their audition. One of the auditioners is invited to stay after he flunks; he says that he still has his children in the car, and "this is no place for kids". The auditioner then glances over at Nathan, who was recruited by his father to work their stereo, before leaving. Other auditioners are hired for their penis size (both mythical, in the case of 'Horse', and real, in the case of Guy).
As the men try practicing, doubts continue to creep in about whether this is the best way to make some money, due to their individual insecurities over their appearances (Dave is overweight, for example). When the men are approached on the street by women who have heard of their show, Gaz declares that their show will be better than the Chippendales dancers because they'll go "the Full Monty" - strip all the way - hence the film's title. Dave quits less than a week before the show, deprecating himself as a "fat bastard" whom no one would want to see in the nude.
While practising, the rest of the men get literally caught with their pants down in the abandoned factory they use for their practice, causing one of the more unconventional chase scenes in modern film, involving most of the main characters running from their pursuers wearing orange leather thongs. Two of the strippers, Guy and Lomper successfully escape, and fall into a homoerotic embrace. The police show the men the surveillance tapes from the factory and soon the secret is out. All seems lost, with the entire city of Sheffield knowing who the members of Hot Metal are and the cast ready to quit, until the owner of the pub informs Gaz that he has already sold 200 tickets for their show.
With not much left to lose, and a sold-out show, the men decide to go for it for one night (including Gerald, who has gotten the job he thought he blew his interview for). Dave finds his confidence and joins the rest of the group, stripping to Tom Jones' version of You Can Leave Your Hat On (their hats being the final item removed).
[edit] Production
The famous "Hot Stuff" scene, in which the characters dance in the queue at the job centre, was originally going to be cut from the final production as it was "too unrealistic".[citation needed]
The cast allegedly agreed that all six of them would really do the "fully monty" strip at the end in front of 400 extras, provided they only had to do one take. Therefore, the choreographer was hiding in front of the stage, just beyond the camera view, screaming directions at the cast during the closing scene.[citation needed]
[edit] Language
The film features frequent used of British slang, and in particular the slang of Sheffield.
The film's title is a phrase generally used in the UK to mean 'the whole lot', or 'the whole hog'; in the film, the characters use it to refer to full nudity - as Horse says, "No one said anything to me about the full monty!". In the United States, the phrase was unknown prior to the film, and consequently most Americans now take the phrase to refer to being in the nude.
Other slang terms are used in the film. Some such as nesh (meaning a person unusually susceptible to cold) are used in Northern England as a whole, while words such as jennel (an alley) are local to Sheffield.[1]
[edit] Awards and recognition
The Full Monty won the Academy Award for Original Music Score for Anne Dudley, and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.
In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted The Full Monty the 49th greatest comedy film of all time.
[edit] Popular culture references
An episode of The Drew Carey Show titled "The Dog and Pony Show" featured Drew and the gang imitating The Full Monty by performing a strip tease to replace Mrs. Louder's purebred show dog Lucky, who was neutered after Drew, Lewis, and Oswald found him in Drew's house, mistook him for a stray, and took him to the vet to have his fur clipped and be neutered.
[edit] Stage adaptation
The film inspired a 2000 Broadway musical of the same name; the characters and setting were Americanized.
[edit] External links
- Monty Mania — Ultimate guide to The Full Monty
- The Full Monty — Where that film title came from
- The Full Monty at the Internet Movie Database
- The Full Monty at The Internet Broadway Database
- Production: The Full Monty - Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing.org, September 2000
[edit] References
- ^ :'Putting SY on the wordmap', BBC, 22 August 2005
| Preceded by The English Patient |
BAFTA Award for Best Film 1998 |
Succeeded by Shakespeare in Love |
