Blue Jean

I often cheer for movies like Blue Jean. They are important in a response to the big lavish entertainment films. But I can't quite get the hang of this particular film.

This is a film about LGBT history, with a main character set in 80s Britain with Thatcher's controversial No Clause 28 legislation as a backdrop. As a gym teacher, she experiences challenges in living out who she really is, in the face of society's view of gays and queers. Important topic. But we have seen this before, and in my opinion also seen it portrayed better before.

In this film, a lot is very good, the era is depicted well. The main character in the film is good in the role of a person who has to make important and not least right choices for herself. But on the way there she makes a lot of strange choices. In particular, her handling of her job as a teacher in meeting with the students is not very credible in my opinion. I think the narrative stagnates in the descriptions of her anguish and doubts. The film does not get out of a rut, and the main character becomes somewhat one-dimensional and I think it became less engaging as time went on.

The film is still not bad, and has a fantastic amount of good 80s music as a soundtrack.

As someone who knew gay/lesbian teachers at the time of section 28, this hits home. Anyone who tells you that the relationships/visuals/attitudes or experience of these lesbians isn't real/true/believable might need to find a few lesbians who would be happy to educate them. Some reviewers get to hide their prejudice under a film review on a website & don't take in the lesson the film is trying to teach them. Times were bad, they still aren't great but it's essential that stories like this (representing ppl like this) are told and ppl get a chance to try to understand a story about ppl they previously only saw as a torrent of negative newspaper headlines. The film feels real, likewise the characters & acting are all spot on. No cast member is misplaced. Proper good.

This film had a plot line that was like a documentary piece of 1980s Britain, in particular the whole 'Section 28' legislation using a PE teacher, Jean and her experiences in the period. How times (although the 1980s still seems relatively recent to me!) have moved on with the repealing of the said legislation in 2003. The whole intricacies of the said legislation is freely available to study elsewhere, this is strictly a review of the film I watched.

The film was shot on 16mm film and like other films using this medium it gives it a documentary type feel to proceedings or so I think.

It compares favourably with the 1980s timeframe of the story and other films of that period such as Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987). The film also demonstrates the 1980s sound of synthesizers and beats from pop music of the time.

The cast put in excellent performances in conveying the bleakness of the whole story and can only be commended for their work on such a low budget film, which the U. K. seems to excel at producing.

"Jean" (Rosy McEwan) is a physical education teacher at a school in Northern Engand. Privately, she is having a relationship with the out and proud "Viv" (Kerrie Hayes) but the emphasis here is very much on the "privately" - something that her confident girlfriend struggles to comprehend. When "Lois" (Lucy Halliday) joins her netball class, then runs into her in a bar later, things become complicated for "Jean" and the remainder of the film illustrates just a short segment of her troubled life as her pupils start to put two and two together and mischief and malevolence rears their very ugly heads. As a gay lad who lived at the time I am actually a little tired of films that make out that "Thatcher" was some alien space invader sent by God to cleanse society. The views of her government represented massive numbers of people in Britain - across the political spectrum - who were terrified about the perceived adverse influences on children of what they saw as "permissive" practices. Rather than acknowledge these concerns as legitimate (at the time) and put some national context into this story, this film really only takes a couple of people whose relationship never comes across as especially strong anyway, and try to make a greater political point. To have been successful there, balance is essential. The underlying plot issues are potent, but they are not developed anywhere near enough to create substantial characters and instead offer us a rather undercooked swipe at a system that was as broadly representative then as it is not (thankfully) now. The production is all a bit basic and though McEwan offers us a considered performance and the film is certainly worth watching, I had really hoped for something just a bit deeper and stronger.

Set in 1988 Newcastle, Blue Jean follows a closeted PE teacher as she navigates the oppressive climate of Section 28 legislation, which threatens her livelihood if her sexuality is revealed, which Rosy does brilliantly through the film. This was recommended to me. I feel the film conveys 80s Northern England & the struggles that people like me would have gone through pretty well, despite being born a long time after 1988. I felt like the film addresses the impact of Section 28 pretty well, as one of the characters feels the need to hide her sexuality due to the fear of losing her job under the legislation, whilst another shows the tension & secrecy that LGBTQ+ individuals faced as students.