"The snapper" is the middle episode of the Barrytown trilogy based on the novels of Roddy Doyle. All episodes are situated in Dublin. The first episode is "The Commitments" (1991, Alan Parker) and the last episode is "The Van" (1996, Stephen Frears).
In the eighties a couple of directors appeared in England who found their insparation in the kitchen sink movement of the early sixties. The political climate with Margaret Thatcher breaking down the welfare state shall have contributed to this reappearance of social commitment.
Stephen Frears was one of these directors. He had his breakthrough with "My beautiful laundrette" (1985), went to Hollywood and made the much more commercial "Dangerous liaisons" (1988). When he went back to England he picked up his social commitment again, resulting in, amongst others, "The snapper" (1993).
In "The snapper" the oldest daughter from a working class family is pregnant. She refuses to say who the father is. This leads to consternation, not only in the family but in the entire neighborhood.
"The snapper" certainly has social commitment, but has so in a very different way than for example the films of Ken Loach. In the films of Ken Loach the working class has an enemy, whether it is the government ("I, Daniel Blake" , 2016) or the employers ("Sorry we missed you", 2019). "The snapper" shows the working class in his own merits. The films of Ken Loach are a mixture of social commitment and anger, "The snapper" is a mixture of social commitment and comedy.
What are the merits of the working class? Maybe they are not very emancipated with regard to women. When an unmarried woman gets pregnant, she is to blame. The man is treated as an unwilling slave to his sexual needs and so it is the woman who must be careful and sensible. On the other hand in some bar scenes the girls proved that men do not have excluseive rights on dirty talk. The ladies also hold their own in that regard.
The main message about the working class is however their solidarity. This message is embodied particularly in the father of the daughter. Learning that your daughter is pregnant, don't intend to marry with the father of the baby and even won't tell his name is not an easy message for a father to hear. Sure he is confused at first, but later he "don't preach" to talk with Madonna and tries to help his daughter as much as possible.
Talking about the soundtrack, the Madonna song "Pappa don't preach" was not the only applicable songtext. "I should have known better" (Jim Diamond) is another one.
A difficuld choice for the director in a film like "The snapper" is what to do with the unknown father. Keeping him unknown all the way? Going for the Hitchcock treatment and making it known to the public but not to the other characters? Making it known also to (some) characters? The director chooses to make it known to the public roughly halfway the film and to some characters not long thereafter. This works pretty well, but I think other choices mifght have worked also.
"The snapper" is a mixture of commitment and comedy, but towards the end of the film, when the daughter goes towards giving birth, the emphasis shifts towards comedy. Some is funny, some is not so funny.
In my opinion not so funny were a series of cuts comparing the daughter with the father.
The daughter giving birth vs the father trying to get a candy bar out of a vending machine.
The baby drinking milk vs the father drinking a pint of Guinness.
The father burping after his pint of Guiness vs the baby NOT burping.
Funnier was the following conversation the father has in a bar with a lone visitor:
Father: 7 pounds 12 ounces.
Lone visitor: Is that a baby, or a turkey?
Father: A baby!
Lone visitor: That's a good-sized baby.
Father: Right.
Lone visitor:Small turkey, though.
