Good Scene/Bad Scene: Mark Herman
Chosen by the director of 'Brassed Off' and 'Hope Springs'
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Your support makes all the difference.Good: 'Kes' (Ken Loach, 1969)
My favourite scene is the football match. While young Billy Casper dangles bat-like from the crossbar in enormous football shorts at one end, his PE teacher, Mr Sugden (a fantastic performance from Brian Glover), not only takes part in but also takes over the game. He ruins it by becoming the most childish person on the pitch. He becomes not only PE teacher but also commentator, dreamer, referee and bully, flattening schoolchildren in his wake. His running commentary, riddled with vanity as he likens himself to "the slightly balding" Bobby Charlton, is hilarious, and best of all is his wonderfully outrageous dive.
Bad: 'The Crying Game' (Neil Jordan, 1992)
It's the scene with Forest Whitaker trying to play cricket. He had clearly only held a cricket ball for the first time in his life that morning. His baggy cricket jumper was funny, too, and it isn't even a comedy. There was only one thing worse than the way he looked and that was the way he bowled, with all the slick co-ordination of someone attempting to rub his tummy, pat his head, and moonwalk at the same time. The scene is irrelevant and should have been cut instead of marring an otherwise great film.
'Hope Springs' opens the Bradford Film Festival
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