LAST ORDERS
UK, 2001, 110 minutes, Colour.
Michael Caine, Tom Courteney, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Ray Winston.
Directed by Fred Schepisi.
Australian director, Fred Schepisi, is best known for such local films as The Devil's Playground, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Evil Angels as well as for international films like Plenty, Roxanne, The Russia House and the striking Six Degrees of Separation. After a five year gap, there is a new film from Schepisi. It was filmed in England, a screen version of Graham Swift's Booker award-winning novel, Last Orders. Schepisi has done the adaptation himself and written the screenplay. It has been welcomed by many British critics who have praised his ability to bring a novel of interior dialogues to the screen. They have also praised his ability to capture the spirit of ordinary Londoners, ordinary blokes. He has been blessed with a fine British cast playing these blokes: Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Ray Winstone. The cast is not confined to blokes and audiences will be very moved by the performance of Helen Mirren as Caine's wife, Amy.
Responding to comments that his gift is to able to explore the outsider to society, Schepisi demurs and says, 'I think it's the humanist qualities that link my work'. The Sight and Sound author agrees, declaring that the humanity is 'palpable' in Last Orders.
The plot is straightforward: Jack Dodds has died and has asked his friends to spread his ashes off Margate Pier. They are in their 70s. They gather for a drink at their favourite pub. Jack's adopted son, Vince, a car-dealer, arrives in a limousine to take them to Margate. As they go on their journey, memories come back to each of them. They joke, they argue, they have lunch and a pint, visit the war memorial at Chatham, detour to Canterbury Cathedral and finally scatter the ashes. Jack's wife, Amy doesn't go, as it is Thursday, the day she has gone for fifty years to visit her mentally impaired daughter, June.
The flashbacks (which go back to World War II as well as to the more recent past) show the characters and their interactions as more complex. However, looking at Jack and his friends, both in their pasts as well as on the day of the trip, we see Michael Caine's Jack is a happy-go-lucky butcher, son of a butcher, who hoped his son, Vince, would follow him. Ray Winstone's car-dealer Vince is more organised. Then there is Jack's best friend, Ray (Bob Hoskins), through whose eyes we see most of the events and who is nicknamed Lucky because of his literal track-record in bets. The other two are Tom Courtenay's more phlegmatic Vic (who actually prefers a shot of whisky rather than the pint) and David Hemming's Lenny (who is the one who always suggests the pint).
When they were young the men had ambitions, Jack to be a doctor, Ray a jockey, Lenny a boxer. Instead they are butcher, insurance man and fruit and vegetable stall holder. Vic is the undertaker he always wanted to be. Amy is devoted to the now fifty year old daughter who has never recognised her and never been able to call her mum.
The group are a matter-of-fact men and women, outgoing, getting their energy to keep going from their friendships and their outings. They have lived in the present despite their dreams. They have had some regrets but they have lived a good life. As they have grown older, more feeling and deeper emotions have been allowed to surface. In fact, Ray is about to embark on a new life that will be the opposite of all that he has done before, a trip to Australia with Amy whom he has always loved to find his estranged daughter. They might be said, in more dignified terms than the ordinary bloke to be 'the common man and woman'.
1. The adaptation of Graham Swift's Booker-winning novel, its interior monologues dramatised and opened out for cinema?
2. The Bermondsey setting, the '80s, the travelling around England, the farm, Canterbury Cathedral, Chatham War Memorial, Margate? An authentic atmosphere? The musical score - and the popular songs?
3. The title, the focus on the pub, its home away from home for the friends? The Coach and Horses and Ray's comment on its not moving? The drinks, the friendliness in the pub, truth told, conflicts, happiness, resolutions? The importance of the last drink for Jack?
4. The structure of the film: Ray and Amy sitting on the garden seat, collecting Jack's things, reminiscing, preparing for the trip to Australia? The gathering for the farewell to Jack? The flashbacks showing Jack and his life, hopes, friendships? The flashbacks within flashbacks to World War Two, Vince and his adoption after being rescued from the bombs, Jack and Amy and their courtship, the young soldiers together in Egypt?
5. Jack Dodds and his being the centre of attention? Michael Caine's screen presence? His performance, the butcher from Bermondsey who wanted to be a doctor? The half-century marriage to Amy? His love for her? The adoption of Vince and his revelation that he had adopted him? June and his never going to visit her? His refusal to face her life and existence? His relationship with Ray, with Lenny, with Vic? The jovial man, his exuberant side, his dark side? His work in the area - and a limited life? Evoking loyalty for the last drinks?
6. Ray as the focus of the gathering of the friends, his own past, friendship with Jack, the six weeks affair going away with Amy and its effect on him? His own broken marriage, his alienated daughter in Australia? His wishes to have been a jockey? Frustrated? His nickname of Lucky, his bets? His using the money given from Jack to make a bet and getting the winnings to pay off Jack's debts? His visits to Jack in the hospital, their discussions, the money issue? Gathering the friends, enjoying the celebration, the trip, his being a moderating influence on the others? The return, his future with Amy?
7. Vic and Lenny, friends, Vic the more tranquil type, the undertaker, satisfied with his life? The contrast with Lenny, his wanting to be a boxer, with his barrow? His getting old and discontent? The flashbacks to their war memories? In the pub, on the trip, the clashes with Vince? In the field, Lenny wanting to scatter the ashes and fighting with Vic? Continuing on the trip? Its effect on them? The nature of long friendships?
8. Vince, his Mercedes, the car-dealing? His being adopted, driving the friends, having the drink at the pub, in the countryside, going to the field where June was conceived, his anger with Lenny and the ashes? Continuing on, getting to understand the older men, reminiscences about his father?
9. Amy, her long marriage to Jack, her quiet life in the butcher shop in Bermondsey? The six weeks with Ray? The conception of June, her birth, going into the institution, visiting her every Thursday - except when she was with Ray? Her not going to Jack's wake because of her going to see June? June's 50th birthday, age, mental age, never having recognised her mother? The pathos of Amy's visits? Amy and her friendship with Ray, assessing her life, her relationship with him, love, hope for the future? A quiet life of desperation and happiness?
10. The scenes in the pub, the people, the British atmosphere of the pub and friendships? The jokes, the talk, the songs?
11. The trip, the going to the field, Vince trying to understand his family better, the story of his adoption? Never seeing him with Amy? The memories of Jack evoked by the field? The visit to the war memorial, the memories of the war, the tribute to the British soldiers in the war and their heritage? The religious dimension, the visit to Canterbury Cathedral, its majesty, its significance in British life, the religious attitudes of the different men?
12. Arrival at Margate pier, going through the ritual? The need for rituals for friendship, for farewell, for death?
13. The Australian perspective of Fred Schepisi in bringing this very British story to the screen? His understanding of the setting, context, environment, the British way of life and ethos?
