Shot by the great Oswald Morris, the film opens with an extraordinary scene set in a jazz club. Trumpeter Jimmy Porter (Burton) – a disillusioned, college-educated bloke, raging against the Establishment – works by day on a sweet stall in the market. His downtrodden, middle-class wife suffers the brunt of his tirades, but when he vents his anger by having an affair with her best friend it causes untold misery for everyone he knows.
Tony Richardson’s feature debut is the epitome of the kitchen-sink drama that spawned a new genre of British social protest films and heralded the liberated swinging sixties. Apposite for current times and still uncomfortably compelling.
Extras
• The Stories that Changed British Cinema (2018, 47 mins): panel discussion featuring actors Tom Courtenay, Rita Tushingham, and Joely Richardson, writer Jez Butterworth, journalist Paris Lees, and chaired by the BFI’s Danny Leigh • George Devine Memorial Play: Look Back In Anger (1966, 17 mins): starring Kenneth Haigh as Jimmy Porter and Gary Raymond as Cliff Lewis • Oswald Morris Remembers Woodfall (1993, 24 mins): the cinematographer reminisces about his time with Woodfall • Ten Bob in Winter (1963, 12 mins): Backed by the BFI Experimental Film Fund, this short drama charts the journey of a ten-shilling note as it passes through the hands of three young men in and around the streets of Notting Hill • Original theatrical trailer • Stills gallery • Fully illustrated booklet with essays by John Wyver and Nicolas Pillai and full film credits
