On the DVD: A nice letterboxed transfer looks a bit soft and grainy--but that's the way it's supposed to be. The only extras are cribbed-from-the-IMDB filmographies, a trailer with a wonderfully unconvincing narration and an image gallery (posters, ads and stills). --Kim Newman
Hazel's brilliant songs are enough to recommend this movie in its own right but, unlike some musicals, Breaking Glass is far more than just a vehicle to promote the artiste's work. The sense of unease stoked by the rise of neo-Nazi and anarchic groups in late 70's/early 80's urban England and the shadier side of the music industry are expertly recreated here.
Furthermore, Hazel's depiction of the roller-coaster rise to stardom, resulting in mental breakdown, is impeccably observed. Why this hugely talented woman's career as an actress never really took off is a mystery to me! She is also very ably supported by Phil Daniels, playing the role of his life and Jonathan Pryce as the sympathetic but messed-up junkie sax player.
Anyone familiar with Hazel's music (and I'm pleased to admit that I've seen her live on several occasions) will be delighted by the performances here, from the gutsy "Blackman", "Give Me an Inch" and "Writing on the Wall" to the astonishingly sensual "Will You" - surely one of the most evocative songs about love-making ever written? Her final performance of "Eighth Day" sends shivers down your spine with its intensity and the closing track - "If Only" provides an immensely powerful epilogue.
The DVD is adequately, if not spectacularly, furnished with extras (filmographies, trailer, stills etc.), but it is the sheer power of Hazel's songs that make this an indispensable purchase.
I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.
James G. Smith Texas, U.S.A.
The film is essentially a love story set in early Thatcherite London where unemployment is skyrocketing and inner city violence and racism are getting out of hand. It charts the progress of a singer, Kate (played by Hazel O'Connor) and a 'promoter', Danny (played by Phil Daniels, Quadrophenia, Chicken Run). Danny decides that Kate is too good for the band she is with and sets about getting a new band together with him as their manager. The film progresses, as many of these rags to riches rock band stories do, with them getting gigs and eventually a recording contract. The film takes an abrupt turn though when they are sent to a big free concert called "Rock against 1984" (the film was made in 1980 and parallels between Orwell's distopian vision of the future and Thatchers Britain were common at the time). Earlier in the film Kate had caused a fight at a gig by singing an anti-rascism song in a pub full of neo-nazi skin-heads. At the concert a much larger group of skin-heads arrives and she whips up both crowds into a riot by singing the same song. She is really enjoying the buzz until a youth climbs onto their van/stage with a huge hole in his chest and she comprehends the reality of the situation. She screams in pain and we cut to a newspaper headline about his death with a photo of her agonized face. We then cut to Kate crying over her piano in the studio later, trying to sing Will You.
It is this scene that really tugs at the heart strings. It is one of the most emotional sequences I have seen in a film in many years. If I'm in a sensitive mood some films will have me welling at the eyes, but this scene had me crying and not just a little - it had tears streaming down my face, my stomach churning. It's as if all of the emotion that had been built up to this point in the film was released in one massive burst. It has probably changed the way I see "Will You", one of my favourite tracks, forever. Before it was a sad and tender love song, exploring the hesitation and anxiety of the first tender moments of love between two friends who had never admitted their love before. Now I will also see her sat crying at her piano, crying over a dead teenager she could do nothing to help.
The rest of the film shows Kate's inevitable spiral into depression and the subsequent anti-depressant abuse, the record company forcing a new producer on them, Danny being forced out, the pressures of touring and success, their compromise of their artistic integrity and culminating in Kate's breakdown after one song of her final climactic concert.
It is not an original story, but I have never seen it done quite so well before. It is an emotionally charged film, powerful performances and music which is a perfect complement. I think the album was far more successful than the film itself was and up until recently it was certainly easier to get hold of the CD than the film. For anyone who hasn't heard the album I can highly recommend it. Most people will recognise many of the tracks, even if they didn't know where they came from. Certainly the sax solos are archetypal.
All in all it was well worth watching, I haven't been this emotionally affected by a film for ages.
![Breaking Glass [1980]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418NSYGAA3L._SL160_.jpg)
