Synopsis
John Osborne's play
Look Back in Anger had caused a storm at the Royal Court in 1956, and the pair formed Woodfall Films to make this film version, released in 1959. The play had a huge impact, launching the "angry young man" movement of disaffected young British writers and artists, who dared to criticise the complacency of post-war Britain. It made the New Wave possible, but paradoxically has held up far less well than the films that followed. In this powerful adaptation of Osbourne's drama,
Richard Burton gives one of his finest performances on film as Jimmy Porter, an ill-tempered and arrogant young man with a grudge against the establishment and disdain for those around him. Angered by the absence of opportunity, Jimmy becomes a symbol for a lost generation of working-class, university-educated young men.
