Made in Dagenham is based on the true story of 187 everyday, working-class women in 1968 England who challenged the status quo and demanded equal pay for women. Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins, Happy Go Lucky) is a wife, a mother, and an employee of the Dagenham Ford Motor Company plant. While over 5,000 men work in Ford’s newest state-of-the-art facility, the women sew seats together using old equipment in a decrepit and leaky warehouse. When the union classifies the women as unskilled labor, their union representative Albert (Bob Hoskins, Mrs. Henderson Presents) encourages them to challenge the union for a reclassification and equal pay. Rita shows natural leadership and stands firm against the union and the media that call her the “Revlon Revolutionary.” Tensions rise when the men of the Dagenham plant, including Rita’s husband Eddie (Daniel Mays, The Bank Job), are forced out of work once the plant runs out of completed seats. The fight goes all the way to Westminster, where the women meet with Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson, The Young Victoria), the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, to help push negotiations with Ford to international repercussions.
Made in Dagenham carries with it many of the idealistic and inspiring elements of films from the ’80s and ’90s that have been absent of late. Hawkins truly shines as a common sense woman who gains the trust of her co-workers and speaks honestly to her opponents. Beginning with Hawkins’s character, the film layers in a trifecta of inequities that transcend class to highlight contemporary attitudes toward women.
Rosamund Pike (An Education) plays Lisa Hopkins, a Cambridge-educated mother whose husband, Ford executive Peter Hopkins (Rupert Graves, Death at a Funeral), treats her like an idiot. Lisa is introduced to Rita when their sons are punished by a tyrannical school teacher. Rita, being from a working-class background, is intimidated by Lisa’s upper-crust sensibilities, but the women have the same drive to stand up for themselves when it counts.
In the third layer of misogyny, Barbara Castle is patronized by her younger and less-experienced male under secretaries. In her best scene of the film, Castle puts them in their place while explaining that she is known as a “fiery redhead” and is not to be coddled.
In all three cases, the women must stand up to their male counterparts to simply be treated with respect. That message is encapsulated during a scene in which Eddie wants recognition from Rita simply because he doesn’t beat her or their children. Rita emphatically retorts, “You are no saint. That is how it should be.” That is the message of this film – fight for what is right because that is how it should be.
This film is powerful and should be seen by men and women in all walks of life to remind us just how different working conditions for women where just 40 years ago. This film also centers in on the very American ideal that ordinary people can make enormous change. Although industry has come a long way since the late ’60s, equal pay for women has not reached the 100% mark, and work is still to be done. A few moments in the film felt preachy, and it does contain the requisite glowing speech followed by a slow clap that builds to applause. But the performances overcome cliché and kept me from squirming in my seat. Director Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls) has again proven that a film about strong women can appeal across gender and be pro-women without being anti-men. Hawkins won a Golden Globe for her performance in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky and she will likely be acknowledged this awards season for Made in Dagenham.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Nigel Cole
Writer: William Ivory
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Daniel Mays, Rosamund Pike
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 113 min.
Release Date: November 19, 2010 (NYC & LA)
