Riff Raff

Karl Marx described class warfare, but the English practically invented it. The harsh rigidity of the British class system has resulted in divisions more explosive than a mine field. And as Riff Raff satirically demonstrates, the Thatcher years simply added fuel to an already raging fire.

Riff Raff is a comedy-drama largely set at a construction site – an old abandoned hospital that is being gentrified into plush apartments. It’s a non-union job, and the laborers are a consortium of working stiffs from various parts of the fallen British Empire. An ex-con from Glasgow named Stevie is part of the crew. He becomes our guide to the modern, daily routine of English working-class life.

Since most of the crew is homeless, the first order of business is seizing control of a deserted building for living quarters. Next, they plunder any useful pieces of furniture or bric-brac in the hospital. To help with expenses, there’s the occasional selling of “borrowed” equipment from the construction site. Then there’s the sanitation problem – most of the company-provided johns are busted.

Riff Raff is wry and humorous. It is also very straight-forward and realistic. Stevie and his mates are characters we can sympathize with, but they aren’t particularly noble. Given half a chance, they chisel each other in deals, and their camaraderie is often based on undercutting comments.

But the crew is bonded by a shared disdain for the posh gentry they indirectly serve and by the thickly accented language they have in common. Their stories are full of false braggadocio, but it keeps them going through a back-breaking day. And the air is rich with working-class accents that really do require the English subtitles provided on the print.

The script for Riff Raff was written by the late Bill Jesse, a caustic comic writer who often made his living in the construction trade. Partly autobiographical, Riff Raff was Jesse’s attempt to capture the experiences – and routine indignities – of manual labor.

But the crucial figure behind Riff Raff is director Ken Loach. Despite his critical acclaim for such features as Hidden Agenda, Loach is still one of the least seen of major British filmmakers. The lives of the working class have been his dominant theme for nearly 30 years – which is part of the reason why his films aren’t widely screened.

A lot of viewers don’t want to watch a group of blowhards with shovels. Yet their talks are lively, lusty, bitter and direct. Right or wrong, at least they’re trying to make a go of it.

Riff Raff is funny. It is also very accurate in its presentation of working-class life and culture. It’s also honest enough to flaunt one of the great ironies of contemporary England: those guys know they’ve gotten the shaft from Thatcher's “revolution.” But a lot of them voted for her – repeatedly.