I, Daniel Blake (2017)

Very disappointing...

Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

From my favorite movies..

Got misty-eyed and heart-sore. Movie was very good at pulling at my heartstrings. But then, when it was over, when I had time to reflect and collect myself, I realized I had been used, abused and manipulated by a shrewd, Marxist ideologue, Ken Loach, the Roach. Daniel Blake was not a doomed loser. He had marketable skills, which should have given him the ability to determine his own future and independence. In the US he wouldn't have been at the mercy of the grim, grey UK welfare state. In the US he could have made a living with his hands, by being a self-employed fix-it man and/or craftsman of furniture and wood mobiles. He could have set up shop in his garage, not been buried under forms and denied his dignity. He might have listened to Merle Haggard or Lynyrd Skynyrd, not some doomy, gloomy crap on a cassette. No such optimism, individualism or self-reliance is allowed under the Queen or House of Lords, according to Commie Ken. Roach Loach is the problem, not the solution. He is the cause of human misery, not its cure. His far-left Marxism crushes the human spirit and makes us all victims, not heroes. When will we learn? His socialist ideology has failed over and over throughout the 20th century (USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, ad nauseam.) The answer is not reform of the welfare state, but its abolition. The answer is to empower humans, not enslave them to government. The sun has set on the British Empire. It deserves no pity, just contempt.

A good look into the benefits system in place in England, and the sometimes unjust way it goes about helping people. However, it can be a little stereotypical in its view, with many being either extremely cruel or nice. There is no in between. The editing and cinematography are decent, as it uses social realist techniques. It really reflects the story and allows for the story to take centre stage. Most of the actors are quite good, and manage to give heartbreaking performances. Definitely worth a look!

An interesting story that portrays the bare reality of today.  We can feel the other's desperation so explicit that he is.  It is a wake-up call by Ken Loach and Paul Laverty, not to forget that this is increasingly present in society.  A society that is unwilling to reach out to help those who need it, while poverty is spreading more and more to people.  It is a nightmare in which we live and even more frightening is the conformity in which people live.  All I can say is that I was disillusioned with the ending, because I thought it was unjust to die after so much fighting!

There's a good film to be made about austerity Britain and the injustices of the benefits system but sadly this isn't it. I was disappointed in the rather loaded structure of this film because it discredited the messages that I think Ken Loach was trying to get across.Daniel Blake is an angry older man unjustly denied his benefit payments. What does he do? He starts off in a belligerent mood which does him no favours, he spends days moaning about how he can't use computers when the lads next door are clearly computer wizards who help him fill in the form in minutes once he gets around to asking for help. Basically he goes out of his way to make things even more difficult than they need to be. In the dying minutes of the film we discover he has actually contacted a claimant's union or benefits lawyer when this should have been one of the first things he should have done. He's portrayed as an articulate and social man so it makes little sense that he spends his time being angry with the system instead of fighting it. All the benefits workers, save one, are portrayed as heartless bastards even though they too are working people living on low wages. It's mostly not their fault, it's the fault of the system, yet they constantly get blamed.I can't help noticing in passing that Daniel Blake has extraordinary skills in woodworking and we see him make a top notch bookcase and exquisite hand-chiselled toys. Clearly he could start making bespoke furniture for toffs and sell his toys at craft fairs and make a small fortune. OK, I'm being facetious but it seriously struck me that that was what he should do.As for the ending it's just a massive cop out. This is a well-made and watchable film with outstanding performances from Dave Johns and Hayley Squires but as an indictment of a rotten and degrading system it tries too hard to make Daniel Blake a victim and almost everyone else a pantomime baddie. I suspect this would have been a better film if it had been called I, Katie and followed her story with Daniel Blake as the minor character.