RAVE - Made in Dagenham

It's been a challenge to explain this movie to American friends for a few reasons:

1. You have to first pronounce it Dag-en-HAM (like Berm-ing-HAM, or Chelt-en-HAM) and then explain it's a dull suburb north-east of London where Ford makes its dull cars.

2. You then have to make apologies for the dreadful clothes, accents and general unkempt-ness of the populace, or at least those represented in the film.

3. And then you need to apologize in advance for the rampant communism on display, remembering that the Labour Party of old - and the unions which kept that party in power in the 60s and 70s - was born out of strident, left-wing reactionaries brought up on Marx and accustomed to addressing one another as Brother this and Brother that.

4. I also needed to explain to Mrs P, who was not born until some years later than the 1968 setting of the movie, who Barbara Castle and Harold Wilson were, who was singing "All or Nothing" (The Small Faces), and what a sewing machine is for ;)

Having got past that lot, it's a wonderful film, a great slice of life.

It didn't really start out that way though.

For the first third of the film I wasn't sure whether it was going to keep my attention, but half-way through I realized I was being drawn in, and then became totally gripped by the developing story.

There were so many reference points that, while reminding us how dated everything looked (clothes, homes, cars and other products), at the same time it reminded us how much has changed in a relatively short period.

To think that just 40 years ago women were paid less than half what men were paid to do the same job, that it was common, if not expected, that a woman would do her job and THEN look after the house, cook the food, and ferry the kids to and from school, that men were entitled to this elevated position because they were "the breadwinners" - one might have been reviewing the history of slavery, or western governments' imperialistic rule over "foreigners".

The fact that you already know the outcome - Ford caved in and gave women equal pay, and the rule spread globally - should not stop you from seeing this excellent movie.