Prometheus (1999)

Prometheus is a 1998 film-poem created by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison, starring Walter Sparrow in the role of Prometheus. The film-poem examines the political and social issues connected to the fall of the working class in England, amidst the more general phenomenon of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, using the myth of Prometheus as a metaphor for the struggles of the working class and the devastation brought on by political conflict and unfettered industrialisation. It was broadcast on Channel 4 and was also shown at the Locarno Film Festival. It was used by Harrison to highlight the plight of the workers both in Europe and in Britain. His film-poem begins at a post-industrialist wasteland in Yorkshire brought upon by the politics of confrontation between the miners and the government of Margaret Thatcher. It has been described as "the most important artistic reaction to the fall of the British working class" at the end of the twentieth century.

Synopsis

Walter Sparrow plays the role of an elderly, emphysema-laden Yorkshire miner who is about to retire. In a bleak, post-industrialist landscape, the old miner meets a boy who is reciting a poem about Prometheus. The youth is played by Jonathan Waintridge. The miner eventually ends up in a depleted local cinema and, though sick with emphysema, he defiantly lights-up a cigarette. With the old miner at the theatre, the run-down projection equipment suddenly comes to life and projections appear on the old screen.

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