An account of the 1968 strike by female workers at a Ford plant that led to Britain’s passage of equal pay legislation, Made In Dagenham rarely strays from the “inspirational story” playbook. It’s got a plucky heroine (Sally Hawkins) spearheading an unimpeachably just cause—in this case, wages based on work rather than gender—against some irredeemably slimy villains, represented here by the one-note chauvinists in charge of Ford. It’s got fight-the-power speeches, moments of comic relief and detours into capital-D drama. It’s got almost no surprises and its characters are mostly superficial archetypes. But because it’s got Hawkins, whose renders Rita O’Grady with equal parts toughness and vulnerability, and because of the aforementioned righteousness of the plant workers’ cause, the movie is impossible to root against.
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.
Really enjoyed this movie.
Slimy, scheming patronising union leaders willing to side with Ford to sell the women down the river in favour of the men.
The worst employers in Britain were trade unions, racist,sexist & homophobic. Male union leaders treated the women support staff like trash; solidarity with the workers was applicable only to men. When the men struck, the women kept the homes running and the kids clothed & fed. In this movie the family tensions are an important part of the fight.
In this look back to 1968 younger audiences will see just what unionised women had to tolerate from their ‘leaders’. And the woman minister really was tough as nails.