Bread and Roses
**1/2
Cinema
Releases - April 27, 2001
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 110
minutes. Directed by Ken Loach. Written by Paul Laverty. Starring Pilar Padilla,
Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo, Jack McGee.
Ken Loach's "Bread and Roses" is
one of the most well-made films of the year -- in terms of the naturalism
of the performers, and the way the cinematography and pacing walk the line
between reality and polish, it is as impressive as "Girlfight". But its ideas
don't make a whole lot of sense, and for a think piece, that's a big
flaw.
The film follows a group of janitors in downtown
Los Angeles. Most of them are illegal immigrants, so their boss has the freedom
to fire employees at random, refuse to grant sick days, and pay sub-par wages.
In comes Sam (Adrien Brody), a union rep who urges the cleaners to organise;
his most apt pupil is our lead character, Maya (Pilar Padilla), a young girl
just in from Mexico who hasn't become as hardened or cynical as her
co-workers.
Of course illegal immigrants are human beings,
and should not be exploited. But Loach's idea that they should join a union
is pretty stupid -- it might make emotional sense, but it doesn't make legal
sense, and a union is an organisation that exists within the law. Everyone
has basic human rights. Not everyone has the right to mandatory dental coverage
and paid holidays.
There are some wonderful scenes in "Bread and
Roses" demonstrating the hardships of the characters, climaxing in a great
and moving speech by Rosa (Elpidia Carrillo), Maya's older sister, who has
lived and worked in Los Angeles for two decades. Maya thinks that Rosa is
a traitor for not giving her full support to the union action; Rosa fights
back by tearfully detailing how she had to work as a prostitute to survive
when she was younger, and how pathetic it is that Maya dares to whine about
her trivial industrial hardships.
I'm with Rosa. Yes, illegal immigrants should
do their best to live lives of comfort, but they are living outside of the
system, and demanding union perks simply makes no sense. It's no fun stating
the obvious, but when your legal status is illegitimate, you cannot join
a union.
"Bread and Roses" is a worthy piece of filmmaking
for blowing the lid off the exploitation of janitors in big cities, but Loach
wouldn't have made this film if he didn't think the union argument was a
sound one, and so a feeling of naivety hangs over the whole enterprise. The
majority of this film's fans are likely to be pretentious students who buy
copies of Socialist Worker and pay lip service to Marxism because they're
bored with middle-class life and want to feel enlightened. I am a left-winger,
but I am not a sap. There is a difference.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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