Riff Raff

• Cat.no: CCD 8216
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 95 minutes
• Year: 1990
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 16 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Fullscreen: 4:3
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £9.99
• Extras : Scene index
  

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  Director:

  Ken Loach

  (Black Jack, Carla’s Song, Family Life, Fatherland, Flickering Flame, Hidden Agenda, Kes, Ladybird Ladybird, Land and Freedom, Looks and Smiles, My Name is Joe, Raining Stones, Riff Raff, Poor Cow)

Producer:

Screenplay:

Bill Jesse

Music:

Cast:

Steve: Robert Carlyle (Carla’s Song, Face, The Full Monty, Plunkett and Macleane, Priest, Ravenous, Riff Raff, Trainspotting, The World is Not Enough, TV: Cracker: To Be A Somebody, Hamish MacBeth, Looking After JoJo)
Susan: Emer McCourt (Hush-a-Bye Baby, Loop, Riff Raff)
Larry: Ricky Tomlinson (Preaching To The Perverted, Raining Stones, Riff Raff, TV: Brookside, Cracker, The Royle Family)

Riff Rafffollows the trials and tribulations of a team of builders who work on a building site,centring on union man Larry (Ricky Tomlinson) and new boy Steve (Robert Carlyle),as well as the latter’s volatile love-life after he hooks up with dowdy, aspiring singerSusan (Emer McCourt), who’s never had a fulfilling time in love herself and might notquite get all she wants from her new man.

Set in 1990, Thatcher’s still in power, thousands are still without work, flats are stillboarded up, job prosperity is at an all time low – so a bit like life under “New Labour”now then.

Presented in fullscreen, the print is anything but perfect but then Ken Loach’s filmsdon’t often paint more than a bleak picture. The average bitrate is a so-so5.43Mb/s, occasionally going above 8Mb/s.

The sound quality is fine in mono, but mostly used for dialogue alone.

Overall, this is one that will only appeal to Loach’s most staunch fans.It’s a film you can take or leave and one that certainly won’t change anyone’slife and with no extras there’s little to recommend it. If you’re a big fanof the it though, a tenner won’t exactly break the bank if it’s going toget repeated viewings.