MovieChat Forums > Clockwise (1986) Discussion > Clockwise captures middle England of the...

Clockwise captures middle England of the mid 1980's

posted 14 years ago by southwestern71
9 replies | jump to latest

Morahan’s direction captures an instantly recognizable middle England of the mid-Eighties, with Austin Maestro panda cars, bleak A-road service stations, grumpy British Rail porters, suburban villas and Mk 5 Ford Cortinas filled with confused old ladies.

The voice of Laura played by Sharon Maiden was dubbed for the US market as the U.S. studio thought her accent was too strong for an American audience. Unfortunately only the US dubbed version is available in Britain on DVD, strange considering the film flopped in the States. This is a real shame as this weakens her character as she always sounds stilted because of the dubbing. Had I known this I would have recorded Clockwise when it was shown I think on ITV in 2007 in the original UK soundtrack.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] hugh1971 14 years ago

Yes, it's odd how nostalgia works. I remember seeing the film when it first came out, but it's now almost a period piece. It reminds me very much of my early teens - we even had an Austin 1100!

[–] glenn-299 14 years ago

I saw this in the 1980s and what really makes it look like a period piece now is this - nobody has a mobile phone. If they had, the whole mess could have been sorted out quickly and we would have had a 15 minute movie.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Andrew_S_Hatton 10 years ago

Now I am really confused - I read elsewhere it was set in 1970 - early 1970s was very believable because of the cars - but I had previously thought it was 1985 - which was also believable but it was surely unlikely Laura's dad would still have had such a 1970s vehicle as an Austin 1100 - surely they were not produced any later than about 1975 or thereabouts. The one shown looked almost pristine and not like a vehicle that has been bashing about UK roads for ten years.

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/bmc-cars/11001300/gallery-bmc-110 01300-timeline/

[–] savoy1984 7 years ago

The computer screen he checks in his office gives the exact date: 15th May 1985, and his watch thinking about it.

[–] savoy1984 7 years ago

Also one of the police near the end use what looks like a mobile phone.

[–] andyd-1 9 years ago

It did capture it, Good observation

Other things it captured - like the 'financially aware' public school head played by Geoffrey Palmer.

On one hand you had parts of the country decaying into poverty and unemployment, then other parts where people were saying how everything had to change because of money, then in the middle were the people who just wanted to carry on as normal, such as the main characters.

[–] TheManWhoSoldTheWorld 8 years ago

Yep, it's a great time capsule. I was a kid back in the mid-80s and this looks like the England I grew up in more than any other film I know. I spotted both an Austin Princess and Maestro - both cars we once owned! (Didn't everybody?)

It seems it's a time/place not widely captured in major films (the British film industry wasn't exactly going strong back then). One of the things it captures wonderfully is all those dreadful Princess Diana haircuts that loads of girls had back then. Were they as popular outside the UK?