The Jealous God (film)
Encyclopedia
The Jealous God is a 1960s set feature film by British writer-director Steven Woodcock
. It is based on the novel by John Braine
. The opening scenes were filmed in the grammar school in Bradford
where Braine was once a pupil. Braine became famous in 1957 for his classic Room at the Top
, a book that shocked when first published because of how it exploded British class and sexual mores of the time. There’s a clip from the Oscar winning 1958 film version of Room at the Top in The Jealous God, when Vincent and Laura are seen sitting in a cinema.
was cinematic and intellectual in tone The Jealous God, set in the early 1960s
, is more commercially retro styled, like an actual 60s melodrama. The poster that promoted the film outside British
movie houses was painted by legendary New York
magazine artist Basil Gogos
to look like a 60s movie poster. The sophistication of Between Two Women shows that as a director Woodcock is capable of great subtlety so it can be assumed the more populist nature of The Jealous God was a stylistic technique used to suit the film’s deliberate, almost kitsch retro feel. Unsurprisingly it was an American
, the respected film critic Rich Cline, who was one of the few reviewers perceptive enough to realize this:
"The story is filmed in a straightforward style with as few frills as possible. Woodcock immaculately recreates 60s-style filmmaking, right down to a prudish tone that avoids actually mentioning any shocking issues by name and pans to the wallpaper when things get remotely steamy. The camera work is like a TV show - lots of moody close-ups and almost no stylistic flourishes besides a gritty recreation of the period. It's extremely effective - like travelling back in time, but with the added resonance of modern actors who combine knowing sensitivity with the overwrought drama."
However, not everyone was convinced. One critic who had also read the source novel commented that:
"Woodcock takes a selfconsciously ‘heritage cinema’ approach, best illustrated by a railway station featuring immaculately restored trains courtesy of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Although the period detail is convincing, this fetishising of surface elements arguably does Braine a disservice. His novel was a sincere attempt at capturing the (then) here and now, but Woodcock’s reconstruction too often feels preserved in aspic."
The movie stars Jason Merrells
and Denise Welch
(both popular British TV actors) and is reasonably faithful to the novel's main narrative line, although it sanitises certain elements such as its protagonist's nascent racism. It tells the story of Vincent, a young Catholic
school teacher still living with his possessive widowed mother. She wants him to become a priest, and the movie explores how he is torn between this and sex and a commitment to his family and his faith. The movie looks similar to Between Two Women
and has the same attention to detail in the sets and costumes and uses similar convincing period locations, steam trains, etc. Some of the same actors appear in both movies.
found favour among an older mainstream audience that often might turn its nose at films with gay/art house subject matter. Playing on this Woodcock consulted with cinema managers and specifically made The Jealous God for middlebrow over 45s and women who read romantic novels and accompanied its release by a media campaign that targeted older Sunday night TV viewers. Even the Basil Gogos poster resembles the cover of a mass market 60s romantic paperback.
Full colour leaflets were carried by all cinemas and handed out at the box office to parents and grandparents who took their kids’ to see movies such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
over the school summer vacation in the run up to The Jealous God’s release in the Fall of 2005. Trailers for it also ran during the same kids’ movies, so moms and dads and their moms and dads would see it. Unusually for an independent British movie it ran in major multiplex chains across the country and broke box office records in north England (beaten in takings in some movie houses only by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the whole year) but received some snobbish anti-Catholic reviews in the British national press. However it was the film of the week in the British mass newspaper The Daily Mirror
– not surprisingly as this is the popular "tabloid" audience the film seems tailored for.
Woodcock is not a Catholic
himself but said the conflict between sex and religion in a period setting appealed to him because of how similar stifling social attitudes affected the story that affected Between Two Women. Ironically some reviewers praised this as the strength of Between Two Women, with its fashionable gay
subject matter but criticized it in The Jealous God, with its unfashionable Roman Catholic themes. Anti-Catholic prejudice was obvious in some of the film’s reviews (maybe young British liberal reviewers consider the faith to be intolerant, especially of homosexuality
) yet the issues it contains remain as pertinent to many devout Catholics in the 21st century as they did back in the 1960s. Some 282 million Europe
ans are Roman Catholic, with 1.1 billion Catholics in the world as a whole - making it the largest branch of the Christian
faith.
Steven Woodcock (film director)
Steven Woodcock is an award winning British film director, writer, and producer. He has made two movies set in north England, Between Two Women and The Jealous God. They are similar, being 1950s & 60s set, and resemble each other in how they were made but they are different in tone and narrative...
. It is based on the novel by John Braine
John Braine
John Gerard Braine was an English novelist. Braine is usually associated with the Angry Young Men movement.-Biography:...
. The opening scenes were filmed in the grammar school in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
where Braine was once a pupil. Braine became famous in 1957 for his classic Room at the Top
Room at the Top (novel)
Room at the Top , by John Braine, tells the rise of an ambitious young man of humble origin, and the socio-economic struggles undergone in realising his social ambitions in post-war Britain...
, a book that shocked when first published because of how it exploded British class and sexual mores of the time. There’s a clip from the Oscar winning 1958 film version of Room at the Top in The Jealous God, when Vincent and Laura are seen sitting in a cinema.
Background and Production
While Woodcock's movie Between Two WomenBetween Two Women
Between Two Women is a 1950s set feature film by British writer-director Steven Woodcock. It tells the story of Ellen, a factory worker’s wife trapped in an unhappy marriage amidst the grime and industrial noise of north England.-Plot:...
was cinematic and intellectual in tone The Jealous God, set in the early 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
, is more commercially retro styled, like an actual 60s melodrama. The poster that promoted the film outside British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
movie houses was painted by legendary New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
magazine artist Basil Gogos
Basil Gogos
Basil Gogos is an American illustrator best known for his striking portraits of movie monsters which appeared on the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine in the 1960s and 70s.-Early life and education:...
to look like a 60s movie poster. The sophistication of Between Two Women shows that as a director Woodcock is capable of great subtlety so it can be assumed the more populist nature of The Jealous God was a stylistic technique used to suit the film’s deliberate, almost kitsch retro feel. Unsurprisingly it was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the respected film critic Rich Cline, who was one of the few reviewers perceptive enough to realize this:
"The story is filmed in a straightforward style with as few frills as possible. Woodcock immaculately recreates 60s-style filmmaking, right down to a prudish tone that avoids actually mentioning any shocking issues by name and pans to the wallpaper when things get remotely steamy. The camera work is like a TV show - lots of moody close-ups and almost no stylistic flourishes besides a gritty recreation of the period. It's extremely effective - like travelling back in time, but with the added resonance of modern actors who combine knowing sensitivity with the overwrought drama."
However, not everyone was convinced. One critic who had also read the source novel commented that:
"Woodcock takes a selfconsciously ‘heritage cinema’ approach, best illustrated by a railway station featuring immaculately restored trains courtesy of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Although the period detail is convincing, this fetishising of surface elements arguably does Braine a disservice. His novel was a sincere attempt at capturing the (then) here and now, but Woodcock’s reconstruction too often feels preserved in aspic."
The movie stars Jason Merrells
Jason Merrells
Jason Merrells is an English actor, who received his big break when he starred in Casualty for three years as receptionist Matt Hawley...
and Denise Welch
Denise Welch
Jacqueline Denise Healy is an English actress, dancer and television presenter.-Early life:Denise Welch was born in Ebchester, County Durham, to father Vin and mother Ann and has a younger sister Debbie...
(both popular British TV actors) and is reasonably faithful to the novel's main narrative line, although it sanitises certain elements such as its protagonist's nascent racism. It tells the story of Vincent, a young Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school teacher still living with his possessive widowed mother. She wants him to become a priest, and the movie explores how he is torn between this and sex and a commitment to his family and his faith. The movie looks similar to Between Two Women
Between Two Women
Between Two Women is a 1950s set feature film by British writer-director Steven Woodcock. It tells the story of Ellen, a factory worker’s wife trapped in an unhappy marriage amidst the grime and industrial noise of north England.-Plot:...
and has the same attention to detail in the sets and costumes and uses similar convincing period locations, steam trains, etc. Some of the same actors appear in both movies.
Cinema Release
Because of its nostalgic tone Between Two WomenBetween Two Women
Between Two Women is a 1950s set feature film by British writer-director Steven Woodcock. It tells the story of Ellen, a factory worker’s wife trapped in an unhappy marriage amidst the grime and industrial noise of north England.-Plot:...
found favour among an older mainstream audience that often might turn its nose at films with gay/art house subject matter. Playing on this Woodcock consulted with cinema managers and specifically made The Jealous God for middlebrow over 45s and women who read romantic novels and accompanied its release by a media campaign that targeted older Sunday night TV viewers. Even the Basil Gogos poster resembles the cover of a mass market 60s romantic paperback.
Full colour leaflets were carried by all cinemas and handed out at the box office to parents and grandparents who took their kids’ to see movies such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of the eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka....
over the school summer vacation in the run up to The Jealous God’s release in the Fall of 2005. Trailers for it also ran during the same kids’ movies, so moms and dads and their moms and dads would see it. Unusually for an independent British movie it ran in major multiplex chains across the country and broke box office records in north England (beaten in takings in some movie houses only by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the whole year) but received some snobbish anti-Catholic reviews in the British national press. However it was the film of the week in the British mass newspaper The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
– not surprisingly as this is the popular "tabloid" audience the film seems tailored for.
Woodcock is not a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
himself but said the conflict between sex and religion in a period setting appealed to him because of how similar stifling social attitudes affected the story that affected Between Two Women. Ironically some reviewers praised this as the strength of Between Two Women, with its fashionable gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
subject matter but criticized it in The Jealous God, with its unfashionable Roman Catholic themes. Anti-Catholic prejudice was obvious in some of the film’s reviews (maybe young British liberal reviewers consider the faith to be intolerant, especially of homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
) yet the issues it contains remain as pertinent to many devout Catholics in the 21st century as they did back in the 1960s. Some 282 million Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans are Roman Catholic, with 1.1 billion Catholics in the world as a whole - making it the largest branch of the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith.