Strike! (1934) User Reviews

If you're at all interested in Powell ...

[Spleen · 7/10 · 31 January 2000]

I expect I'm like most people: I only sat down to watch this film because of the director's name. In many ways it's exactly what I expected. Direction is adroit, the boats and the boat-yards are lovingly filmed; it's by no means a bad bit of work. Money, of course, had to be shaved off the budget somewhere, and - surprisingly, given Powell's later career - the score was the first thing to go: there's a quotation from Smetana's `The Moldau' at the beginning, another at the end, and that's it. Also, no-one had time to polish the script. The romance (for instance) is worked in with such perfunctory terseness it will probably make you laugh.

I was surprised to see myself caught up in the story. The crusading hero (David Barr, played by Leslie Banks) has to be one of the most abrasive the screen has seen: a monomaniac who barks out insults at everyone around him in clipped tones and then wonders why he isn't more popular. I won't even comment on his moral code... And yet, there's no doubt I was on his side. I was even conned into liking him. By the end of the film the most critical thought I could manage was, `Well, it would be a pity to lose the British shipping industry just because its champion is such a jerk.'

Many critics (well ... three, to my knowledge) see the British shipping industry as a metaphor for the British film industry. I'm not sure if they're right or not. But `Red Ensign' is an argument for Britain's quota system in another sense: it shows that directors of obvious talent were allowed an apprenticeship, making films that, on examination decades later, really aren't so bad.

No classic, often unwatchable, but a valuable intimation of its director's future genius.

[alice liddell · 5/10 · 26 January 2000]

In many ways this is a dreadful film - poor production values; stereotypical characters; atrocious acting; reactionary politics; and a dull story about saving British shipyards. And yet this quota quickie was directed by Michael Powell, and reveals early on much of his brilliance - his portrayal of dangerous heroes; his ability to streak the everyday with both the Romantic and the disturbing; his often stunning use of montage and the camera - some of his amazing compositions, tilts and pans are wasted here. A must-see to watch a Portrait Of A Genius As A Young Apprentice.

Best Michael Powell 'Quota Quickie' English Movie

[springfieldrental · 7/10 · 21 March 2023]

Michael Powell, a rising young English film director, was a beneficiary from the United Kingdom's attempts to tamp down Hollywood's dominance in its affiliated countries as well as prop up its own film studios. His highly-regarded June 1934 "Red Ensign"-a.k.a. "Strike," has been cited as one of the best so-called "quota quickies," movies that were made in response to the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927." The passage of the law required all the movie theaters in the UK to show at least twenty percent of the year's motion pictures they projected to be produced by England and its commonwealth's film studios. These were low-budgeted, quickly produced films that was designed inject deeply needed cash to the countries' struggling movie studios, mainly to fight off the complete dominance of Hollywood movies.

"Red Ensign's" plot follows the head designer and manager of a Glasgow, Scotland company, David Barr (Leslie Banks), who is an innovator of a radical cargo ship that carries 25% more goods with far less fuel consumption than their competitors. His edge-of-the-seat adventures of convincing his firm's board of directors, and then warding off a competitor shipbuilder's corruption against him, is the first film ever that details the inner workings of merchant ship construction. Wrapped around the dramatics is fascinating footage of all phases of cargo vessel building, from its conception on the drafting table to completion. Coinciding with the jaw-dropping dramatics of financing and the competitor's shady actions was a look at the dynamics of the union workers' effects on the shipbuilders, making it the first movie outside of Russia to look at industrial relations with unions.

"Red Ensign" holds a special personal place to Michael Powell in his large body of work. He felt that after twelve films he directed this marked the a realization of his creative genius. In his autobiography, Powell wrote, "It was the first time that Michael Powell himself realized that there was something special about a Michael Powell film, something going on on the screen, or behind the screen, which you couldn't put your finger on, something intriguing, aloof, but in the long run memorable." Powell, who became one of England's most influential directors, began literally on the ground floor in the movie industry as a gofer for director Rex Ingram, sweeping floors and making coffee for the film crew. He climbed the ladder, working with Alfred Hitchcock on several of his films before he got his chance in 1931 to become a primary director in 'Two Crowded Hours.'

Film reviewer Mark Hasan concurred with Powell's assessment on the importance of "Red Ensign" to England's more highly-regarded director. "The message is unmistakable," wrote Hasan, "and alongside the documentary footage and montages, it's the most important element in this early Powell work that's still worth viewing." Powell's collaboration with screenwriter Emeric Pressburger late in the 1930s would prove to be one of cinema's most inspiring and influential partnership England ever produced.

Some of Michael Powell's baby steps. The movie's not much except for the shipyard scenes

[Terrell-4 · 4/10 · 8 January 2009]

There are some good elements to this Michael Powell quota quickie, but on the whole it's just a bit of earnest flag waving.

We're in the middle of an utterly serious patriotic paean to British shipbuilding and British determination. David Barr (Leslie Banks) is the managing director, board member and ship designer of Burns MacKinnon, builder of British ships. We're also the middle of the Depression, with British ships idled and rusting away, the great British shipbuilding companies barely alive and thousands of men out of work. Barr is positive he's designed a new kind of freighter, so fast and efficient it will not only put Burns MacKinnon back on its feet, it will be the salvation of British shipping. He is willing to go to just about any lengths to face down his timid board and deal with dangerous competitors. Barr is single-minded, dead serious, humorless and articulate…the kind of man you might want to lead a charge but also the kind of man you'd hate to have lead your church. He makes one mistake and it seems he may lose everything. But he doesn't. His ship is launched. British shipping has hope. The Red Ensign, flown on all British shipping, will fly the seas with pride again.

The movie is little more than patriotic nonsense with an unbelievably unflappable and dynamic lead character. Still, Powell gives us some masterful scenes where the work of the shipyards is featured.

Dull but good looking drama of sabotage and mayhem.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 7 December 2011]

Competators of a major shipping line do all they can to keep that firm from successfully launching their new steamer. There's really not much more than that other than a couple of interesting photographic moments (one involving a large group of shipbuilders protesting over their lack of pay, another involving the ship's explosion), nothing much happens. Bad guys looking like something out of a Dick Tracy cartoon and a dull romance are among the clichés and flaws of the story. Leslie Banks, fresh from Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much", is the star, but this isn't really a worthy follow-up. I have to rank this as a disappointment for its director, Michael Powell, whose biggest successes were years off. It is worth a look, however, for students and fans of classic cinema, particularly of the early British celluloid era.

This simply doesn't play well today or outside the UK.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 16 February 2012]

Back in the 1930s, the Brits and Hollywood made quite a few films that glorified the British Empire. While I could certainly understand them doing this in the UK, I never understood Hollywood's fascination with the Empire--especially as we Americans are SUPPOSED to be against that sort of thing. But, no matter---"Strike" WAS make in the UK and glorifies British pluck, determination and the Empire. And, since the Empire is no more and the film is very dated, it's a rather difficult film to love today--even if it was directed by the famed director Michael Powell--who would definitely go on to better things.

The film is all about a determined and very idealistic entrepreneur (Leslie Banks). Despite the British industry being in the doldrums because of the Depression, he is determined to start building more and better merchant ships--even though dozens are rotting because they simply have nothing to haul. But, his enthusiasm is infectious and eventually he's able to get some investors and he goes nuts on a ship building crusade. However, some selfish and very un-British brutes are determined to undermine his work. But, by the end, all is well and the Empire's been set to right....huzzah, three cheers and all that rot! As I said above, this must have played a lot better back in the day. Not it just seems like a very dull anachronism--and clearly intended as propaganda as well. Not very good.

Similarities in corruption and recession to today

[alicecbr · 8/10 · 26 October 2010]

With none of the technology of today, I got a great glimpse of REAL, not CGI, shipyards in which gigantic ships were built. And all very similar to the ships my father helped design for WWII in Newport News, Va. And this was right after the 2nd depression caused when Congress refused to fund the 2nd infusion of WPA funds for fear of 'going into debt', the madness that we now have today.

To watch the work of the ship builders in Glascow was delightful. to watch the steel being made, as it was in Birmingham, Al when I was a child in the 'Pittsburg of the south' reminded me of when we were a mighty nation of manufacturing, not child-like consumers and paper-pushers.

the amazing thing was that this Michael Powell movie had no illusions: both protagonists and antagonists were 'immoral'. One lied and forged his competitor's signature to get the funding for his ship ('ends justifies the means'?); the other was far more nefarious, burning down the ship and embedding saboteurs in the work force of David Barr's shipbuilding company. A great point: there is a GREAT difference between wholesale corruption and lying as the Tea Partiers are showing us now, and the dilly-dallying of some of the Dem office holders (e.g., Spitzer). Yes, we have 'evil' on both sides, but some evil is far more destructive than other.

In this movie, the media did a wonderful thing, bringing to the attention of Parliament the lesser crime that Barr committed in order to save British shipping. And in such terms, his forgery was couched. Today's corporate media paints both parties in the same light, knowingly re-instating an oligarchy of Big Business under the pretense of presenting a 'fair and balanced' view of the shenanigans going on. What a contrast!!! The class differences were also shown quite obviously in the dress and accent of the actors, but why would a Scottish head of business sound like an English laird? Could it be because when all the Brits go to college, they come out sounding posh?

I loved the movie, made in 1934, because it showed me aspects of my Scottish background I could never see before. The Copelands were shipbuilders in Glascow before emigrating to the South, where my uncle was an engineer in the steel mills in Fairfield, Al and my father designed the ships that fought WWII in Va. It brought my background to light in a way that the history books could not.

And the writing was excellent, despite the hurried up courtship between the woman and David Barr. She obviously saw through the phoniness and lack of quality in the 'chairman of the board', to whom she was engaged. And hearing David Barr take on the board, as well as all the shipbuilders who weren't getting their week's pay immediately made her fall head over heels with him. But we were spared the romantic details, since this was about brave men and what it took to get the shipyards sparking again. Now when is someone going to do that for my poor country, foundering on the rocks of corruption and greed?