This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I absolutely love ewan macgregor, but also the message of the film. i think it would make a great double feature with "pride" (2014.)

*Spoiler/plot- Brassed Off, 1996. A 100 years old coal miners brass band members hit economic and social troubles when their coal mine's labor problems threaten to shut the mine down along with the band organization.*Special Stars- Pete Postlewaite, Ewan McGregor, Jim Carter.*Theme- Taking a social stand and speaking out is as important as making band music.*Trivia/location/goofs- UK, Yorshire. This film's band music caused a resurgence of interest in band music. Wtach this film for first-time on camera performances for many British and Scotish leading character actors.*Emotion- A thoroughly enjoyable character driven film plot about regular people's struggles with work, family and goals. It's a memorable film for it's themes, good casting, writing, and production.

The music was absolutely exquisite and the acting excellent. Felt that some elements could have been left out e.g. God-bashing moments, blasphemy which I thought were totally unnecessary and offensive. Does the director/writer/producer have something against the Catholic Church in particular?The speech at the end was quite disappointing for someone with one foot on the grave and it was lacking some type of closure. Yes, I can imagine the frustration of these coal-mine workers as obviously these things have been happening and are still happening all around the world including Australia in the different industries.I have always loved watching English comedy/drama but, this one put me off somewhat and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone quite honestly. Rather buy a CD with similar music and avoid all the non-sensical things by watching movies such as this one.

Brassed Off is a British film about the troubles of a colliery brass band when the coal mines that sponsored the band was forced to close by the government in 1992, the same week the Grimethorpe Colliery Band won the National Brass Band Championship. The closures killed the coal industry in England and forced many miners out of their jobs. "Brassed off" is a British slang expression that means dejected, fed up, upset, which is what the coal miners were when they were forced into retirement, into joblessness, and some even into suicide when the government closed the mines. Between 1990 and 1997, the party in control of the British government was the Conservatives, who were led by John Major, although the film calls them Tories or the Tory party. When the government decided to replace coal with nuclear power as a source of fuel, approximately 140 coal pits, representing more than 200,000 miners' jobs, were deemed redundant. The government offered the workers "redundancy" – forced retirement with severance pay. The film is set in Grimley, a fictitious town that represents the village of Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire, in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, the European Union named Grimethorpe the poorest village in Britain. The village, however, is still fiercely proud of their brass band that has been in existence since 1881. The film has been criticized by some as a poor imitation of the Yorkshire dialect and accent, but most American audiences wouldn't know the difference. If you like brass band music, you'll enjoy Brassed Off and you'll learn some history about the British government closing the coal mines at the same time (something the U.S. may be forced to do in the not-too-distant future if the environmentalists have their way).