BRONCO BULLFROG
UK, 1969, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Del Walker, Anne Gooding, Sam Shepherd, Roy Haywood.
Directed by Barney Platt- Mills.
Bronco Bullfrog is one of only three films written and directed by Barney Platt- Mills. In 1971 he made a second feature and in 1982 his third, Hero, the first film made in Scottish Gaelic.
This film is a mixture of slice-of-life and documentary about young people in East London. It was filmed by non-professionals, young people who were after a job and agreed to be in the film. It is reported that several of them were thieves and actually absconded with some of the camera equipment, endangering the production of this small-budget film.
The director wanted an authentic feel to this picture of teenagers, their struggles with poverty, life on the streets, moral ambiguities and moral challenges. The film works well along these lines – and is a glimpse of social conditions and social history in the Great Britain of the late 1960s, especially in the poorer parts of London and East London.
1. Was this an entertaining film? Did it hold interest? Why? Uhy was it made? Did the initial explanation justify the making of a feature film?
2. Comment on the black and white photography and its effect? Comment on the use of cockney dialogue and the ability of the audience to understand it. Did it add to or detract from the film? Why?
3. How real was the world that the film presented? Why? Did you think these were real people in real situations? What impact does this kind of realism have on an audience?
4, How well was the London environment portrayed: homes, places of work, cafes, high rise flats? Local industry? The contrast between Stratford and the West End and with the country?
5. Did you like Dell as a person? His friends? How ordinary a person was Dell? How did the various episodes in which you saw him help you to understand him? In his environment - the initial robbing of the store, his welding work, his friend Grimes with the picture? Dell at home with his mother and father, buying and riding his bike, his friendship with Bronco Bullfrog? his involvement in the robbery, his wanting to go to the country, his being bashed?
6. What capacities for living did Dell have? Opportunities, education, the fact that he and his friends were so inarticulate, development of feelings? What opportunities for growth and development did young people in Stratford have? Who was responsible?
7. His relationship with Irene? The inarticulate beginnings? Irene as a person at home, with her mother, at school, her ambititons, her response to the friendship of Dell? Their visit to the West End, their not being able to go to the pictures, their walking around?
8. The development of their relationship? Irene's being prepared to run away with Dell, despite her age? The consummation of their love? Their ideas about marriage? Their night with Jo, their being left at the end with a question mark about their future?
9. The parents - Dell's father and his attitudes, winning the competition, forbidding Irene to come to the house? Mrs Richard son, her attitudes, her dislike of Dell, her fighting with Irene, her reading the paper and watching thn television, her husband in gaol, her self-centredness, her getting the detective to find Irene? What chance did young people have with parents like this? What kind of parents would Dell and Irene make? Why?
10. How realistic was their going to the country - on the bike, not knowing where the house was, thinking of getting a job? What did this going to the country mean for their lives, their ambitions?
11. How lonely were the people in this film?
12. They wanted a better life, but did not know what a better life was. Would they have a chance of having a better life?
13. What future did Dell and Iene have as the film left them? Did they have enough in themselves and together to build a life on?
14. How human was this film? Did it give insight into what it is like to be human? How important are films that are successful in communicating this?
