Underplayed Gems

The Full Monty (1997)

The Full Monty poster
Directed by
Peter Cattaneo
Genre
comedy film, comedy drama, LGBTQ-related film
Country
United Kingdom, United States
Runtime
1h 30m
Rated
R
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 1,810 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A group of unemployed steel workers in a struggling English town decide to form a male striptease act to earn money. The main character wants to reconnect with his son. The story mixes comedy with the serious problems of unemployment, body image, and personal dignity.

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What happens

The Full Monty is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, written by Simon Beaufoy, and starring Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson and Mark Addy. The film is set in Sheffield in the North of England during the 1990s, and tells the story of six unemployed men, four of them former steel workers, who decide to form a male striptease act (à la Chippendale dancers) to make some money and for the main character, Gaz, to be able to see his son. Gaz declares that their show will be much better than the Chippendales because they will go "the full monty"—strip all the way. Despite being a comedy, the film also touches on serious subjects such as unemployment, fathers' rights, depression, impotence, homosexuality, body image, working class culture and suicide. The Full Monty was a critical success upon release and an international commercial success, grossing $257 million from a budget of only $3.5 million. It was the highest-grossing film in the UK until it was outsold by Titanic. It won the BAFTA and European Film Award for Best Film, and the Academy Award for Best Original Score. It was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The Full Monty was released in the United Kingdom by Fox Searchlight Pictures on 29 August 1997. The British Film Institute ranked the film the 25th best British film of the 20th century. It was adapted into a musical in 2000 and a play in 2013. A follow-up TV series was released in 2023. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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