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Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning (1960)
Rate:
10
Viewed:
5/19, 3/22
5/19:
"What I'm out for is a good time. All the rest is propaganda."
So begins Albert Finney's great acting career in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, an intense
British angry man film that would see his character grow up at the end after partaking of self-destruction.
If Albert Finney won awards for his performance, he deserved them. He's absolutely the show. Rachel Roberts is
splendid enough of an actress to match him pound for pound as she proved it again by appearing in
This Sporting Life
with an even more intense actor by the name of Richard Harris. And yes, that's Colin Blakely in his first yet brief film role.
Alan Sillitoe's writing is sharp, giving the dialogue a nice crisp pace with plenty of easy-to-understand British slang. Additionally,
Freddie Francis' black-and-white cinematography is top-notch. The last fifteen minutes is unfortunately weak,
disallowing it to finish in a more dramatic manner.
All in all, Albert Finney, a giant in British cinema, makes a powerful leading-man debut in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
3/22:
The main reason to revisit Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is the brilliant performance by Albert Finney.
It's maybe the best film of the British kitchen sink drama genre. The other examples are
Look Back in Anger with Richard
Burton and Claire Bloom and This Sporting Life with Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts.
The central figure is a
working-class angry young man. It sparked the New Wave of British filmmaking which saw the emergence of directors Karel Reisz,
Jack Clayton, Lindsay Anderson, John Schlesinger, and Tony Richardson.
Based on his life, Alan Sillitoe penned the fictional novel entitled Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, his first and most
famous work, and then redid it in screenplay format. The British writing is excellent, showing plenty of
parallels with Alfie that came out six years later which shot Michael Caine to international stardom.
Albert Finney is fantastic, having become the character of Arthur Seaton quite naturally. Not unlikeable the least bit, he's a tough
guy who'll bear responsibilities for whatever and own up to his mistakes. His ultimate credo is: "What I'm out for is a
good time. All the rest is propaganda." At the end, Seaton redeems himself by finally growing up but refuses to go quietly.
All in all, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a British masterpiece with Albert Finney at his best.