Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Someone has previously posted that this film is about class and social division which is certainly true and one of the many sub-texts of the screenplay. It interests me that reaction to this film also seems to be delineated along class lines and social division. When I've mentioned this film in passing to middle-class types they turn their noses up in horror and say this film is so 'depressing'. In contrast, to anyone from a hum-drum town anywhere in the British Isles (in my case Ireland) or inner city working class background, a mention of the film if they've seen it, brings on a laugh and smiles of recognition of shared experiences.

Hyper-realism may prevail in this film but there are many many reasons to watch it. The most important of which is to be reminded, if one needs reminding, what devastating changes took place during Thatcher's political reign during the 80's. The appalling errosion of social housing and services, and the introduction of the exploitative Youth Training Schemes which paid a pittance to participants. Overcrowded classrooms, and few opportunities to socialise meant teenagers had to make their own fun just like Rita and Sue.

To me no other film evokes the 80's like this film, it always brings me out in tears of laughter as I recognise the characters from my own life. Practically every girl in my home town dressed exactly like Rita and Sue, bare legged and white stillettoed. I can't remember any other film that captures the teenage mischieve-ness and innocence of 80's teenagers. That scene where they go to the museum with the other school girls and exiting onto a cobbled Yorkshire street Sue utters the immortal line: '..she called me a slag so I hit her!, after assaulting a virgin classmate, is a real hoot. For me the funniest scene is when Rita and Sue start giggling in embarassment as Bob and The Wife start having a barny after returning home after a night on the tiles. (N.B. if Rita and Sue have been hired as babysitters how come we never see the kid they're babysitting?)

This film is not depressing. The two main protagonists (Rita and Sue) are finding fun, excitement and adventure (isn't it better to be walking around in cow dung getting fresh air and a 'jump' from the middle class neighbour in a car than loitering around a dreary housing estate?) as an antidote to their hopeless circumstances. They don't feel anymore more victimised than Bob's wife. They maybe poor and working class; but they're getting bonked regularly unlike Bob's missus!

The performances are absolutely sterling, there are no false moves or corny lines. And Lesley Sharp is truly comical as she jumps on Bob's suit and calls him every name under the sun. For me the actor who shines most is Michelle Holmes, and I always love watching her whatever role she's playing ever since seeing her in this film.

I wish the bourgeois critics could put aside their own prejudices and snobberies and see this film for what it really is. A gritty realistic picture of 80's England and a precursor to the highly successful 'Full Monty'. It is also a great heart warming film for adults that was way ahead of its time when it was being made in the mid 80's. Every time I see it I laugh out loud - if you're ever feeling a bit down, watch this film! It will blow the cobwebs away completely, trust me!

As far as I'm concerned this is up there with 'Brief Encounter' as a classic British film. I'm serious!

.. talk like that and I'd get a belt .. hello 1980s how I've missed you. Before everyone gets up in arms about the smooth talking Bob and his two girls - these two girls at time of filming were both in their 20s!

This for me when I was watching back in 1987 was the closest we could get to porn. No internet porn. No adult channels. Only porn videos you could get from some dodgy fella at work. So this was it. We were having a gang bang. Having a born. A bit of a three some one the moors with the horn honking and smooth Bob telling you to shift your bum up whilst he prepared to go again with Rita.

Be prepared for some language no longer allowed now a days that was used to described the corner shop way back when and just take the film with a pinch of salt. Get stuck in there!

British playwright Andrea Dunbar combined two of her stage plays to create the movie script for Rita, Sue and Bob Too, a movie which, in my family at least, is somewhat fondly remembered as a naughty and gleefully foul-mouthed comedy about an older, married man who starts a sexually-charged relationship with two schoolgirls who babysit his children. 30 years on, the subject matter could be slightly troubling, and it just may be exactly that for some people seeing it for the first time. Yet with the tagline "Thatcher's Britain with her knickers down!" and the socially aware Alan Clarke at the helm, it's clear that the film is much more than a titillating throwback to the Carry On days, and paints an incredibly grim picture of working-class life in Bradford, and of Britain as a whole.

Rita (Downton Abbey's Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two bubbly and outgoing girls making some extra cash on the side by babysitting for middle-class couple Bob (George Cositgan) and Michelle (Lesley Sharp). While driving the girls home one night, Bob takes a detour to the moors where he proceeds to have sex with both of them, one after the other. The threesome start a potentially damaging relationship, with the girls having to deal with a troubled home- life and the pressures of school gossip, and Bob coming under scrutiny from his wife, who he has cheated on many times before. As Bob and Rita grow closer and Sue finds herself in an abusive relationship with young Pakistani Aslam (Kulvinder Ghir), close bonds are broken and lives are ruined, when all Bob really wants is to get his rocks off.

It is a film that would never get made nowadays, but Clarke's film never attempts to make any stance on the morality of the characters' actions. For a guy who sounds like a complete scumbag on paper, Bob is a surprisingly likable, if obviously flawed, chap. Rita and Sue are so loud, abrasive and willing to participate in the bizarre three-way that they it's impossible to view them as victims. The picture painted by Dunbar and Clarke of a crumbling Britain in the grip of austerity suggests that the central characters are acting out of boredom and to escape the banality of their suffocating environment. It is a socioeconomic drama cleverly disguised as an old-fashioned sex farce, and succeeds in being socially observant and laugh-out-loud funny. The introduction to Sue's frenetic home- life is a mixture of amusing one-liners and kitchen-sink angst, and this lopsided tone is consistent throughout the rest of the film. With its lack of ethical judgement amidst such a potentially creepy subject matter, Rita, Sue and Bob Too with unsettle some but delight others.

This movie has stood up very well over the years. All the performances are excellent and the writing is better than that of any British film I can bring to mind. The fact that it was written by a very young woman is amazing. She had such a deep understanding of how the world works at such a young age and was able to turn it into a spectacularly entertaining and enduring work of art.

It's one of those films you can watch over and over again. In my repeat viewing chart it's probably second only to The Blues Brothers.

Great fun and they'll never make anything like this ever again.

Where do i start? I brought my fiancé this DVD because he picked it out and i have to admit i was dreading watching it because i thought it would be sh*t, but i stand corrected it's totally funny i couldn't stop laughing. The story is a married man called Bob seduces the babysitters Ria and Sue in his car when parked out on the moors resulting in a hilarious sex scene. The three continue their relationship of casual sex and good times even though they know the truth will eventually be known.

As i said comedy is a big part of this film which is mainly from the common accents and swearing from practically the whole cast (especially Kevin, Sue's racist, drunkard dad). Other comedy moments are the old nosey neighbour (Hosepipe Harry) who spends the whole film watering his garden and the dance scene where Bob and the two girls are dancing to a song called "We're having a gang bang!" which is funny just for Rita's dancing (best moment in the film!) although a friend of Bob's wife (Fat F*ckin' Mavis) sees them and tells her leading to a full scale argument with the girls families and the married couple, which has more swearing in the 5 minute scene then a whole series of the Osbournes.

This is a great British film and anyone with a sense of humour will enjoy it!