just watch it!

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I caught this on cable - thank goodness I didn't have to pay extra for it! It is pure propaganda and apology for illegal immigration and illegal employment of illegal immigrants. As if illegal immigrants have any right to a job, a union, or to "negotiate" for wages!! I'm glad this battle is finally coming to a head in our country.I moved to Britain as a youth, just out of high school. I hoped to get a job to sustain myself while trying to be a musician. No one would hire my (rightly so!) even though I arrived legally - on a tourist visa. That is the way it works folks - immigration is a legal process that bestows certain rights on those would go through that process. Employment and union wages are NOT a right just for crossing the border in the dead of night. I have no sympathy. And....theft (as undertaken my Maya!) is a felonious crime!This film actually made me angry - it was NOT entertaining!

I'd like to start with a positive note: I liked the performance of Elpidia Carrillo.I did not care much for the rest of the movie.It has been shown, again and again, that trade unions are bad for the American economy. The UAW union has been "successfully" destroying the American automobile industry; the teachers' union has been no less successfully destroying the American schools; et cetera, et cetera. But these minor details shouldn't matter, should they, when we watch "Bread and Roses"? This movie, if you take it seriously, wants you to believe that without a union, the only way for a woman to get a job for herself or for her sister is to sleep with the boss; otherwise she can only support her family by becoming a prostitute.The cute female lead, an illegal Mexican immigrant, robs a gas station, but we are supposed to sympathize with her because this is "for a good cause".The male lead, a union organizer, steals the food from a table in a restaurant, and we are supposed to admire him for that and other examples of outrageous anti-social behavior.The demonstrators, when asked for their names by the police, give the names of Mexican revolutionary figures, and we are supposed to laugh at the stupidity of the American policemen.The illegals, oops, the undocumented workers, struggle to improve their lot in this country, instead of doing the same in their own country, or waiting in line to come here legally. We of course are expected to fully support them, to embrace them, to learn their language, to sing their songs. It shouldn't cross our mind that they have already broken the law of this country by crossing the border illegally and just for that alone should be treated as criminals.And that's both funny and outrageously shameful.

On the whole I have been greatly impressed with Ken Loach's other works, however, without question, this was the low point in my experiences with his films. Speaking as a Brit with a lot of North American life experience, I would say that Ken understands and portrays British society brilliantly, however, he hopelessly misunderstands American society. At one point, for example, one of the evil company bosses is supposed to be excruciatingly shamed in public by the gutsy and imaginative union organiser who crashes his lunch meeting ... only, in America, this simply wouldn't work - at all - in a restaurant like that in the US the other patrons would respect someone for making money & not give a crap what some "scrub" had to say about the percentage rate of profit that went into x dental plan, or what have you (I'm not really sure that that would work in Britain or anywhere else either - but in any event, it seems to me, never in the US & especially never in LA). As such, all the fabulous nuance that invades Loach's British based films is starkly absent in this one. Consequently, watching Bread and Roses was quite literally an excruciating experience - like watching a childhood hero fail embarrassingly, & without grace. Ken creating wooden characters? How is it possible?? (See above). I don't consider myself political. I am someone interested in ideas, fairness and justice. I respect people who approach the world with those ideas in mind. On this basis I usually have all the time in the world for the films that Ken creates. But realistically, I can't recommend this one. In the end I gave this movie a 5 & a half (then rounded up) but all of its score comes from a particular realistic, powerful and highly revealing moment. There's too much of the remainder left over, however, for that single moment to carry the whole.

I am a member of United Food & Commercial Workers. The first time I saw this movie was August 23, 2004 at a youth conference. This is one of the best union movies I have seen. I was in Montreal this summer at a convention and we all sang the song as well. The movie is very moving and gives a very powerful perspective on what happens at some strikes and also what happens when workers find out you are trying to organize the workplace. Organizing is when you try and get the workplace unionized. As a female, I am truly amazed at the fight these women put up with to become unionized. I personally have been touched by Bread & Roses and I know many fellow union members who have been as well.