1978 Jubilee (62nd)

What else happened this year? Punk had broken. Russia invaded Afghanistan, which luckily lead to that country becoming a peaceful, outward-facing democracy ever since then [sources required]

What is the plot - in one sentence? Queen Victoria goes into the future to watch some punks in the aftermath of what appears to have been a violent revolution in the UK.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The four main female punks of the movie are taken to Dorset, which is now a sort of East Berlin of Britain, to be put under the leadership of (an incredibly annoying) record producer. Queen Victoria heads back into the past, and I don't blame her.

What is the meaning of the title? It's a reference to the Jubilee of the queen, which happened that year. There are also some jubilee underwear given as prizes in a bingo run by a Scouseman.  

This shot is taken from a party scene latish on in the movie. If you've given up watching it at normal speed, and you're watching it at 1.25 speed, it's still as slow as the music was insane at that speed. Also, if you can make a sexy disco scene with a bunch of naked bishops dancing away boring enough that someone has to play it at 1.25x speed, you either have a jaded viewer or a trying-too-hard movie. Perhaps both?

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Yes, the gang of female killers slap a restaurant worker around. There's no violence to women by men though, though I'm willing to take your word for it if it was there somewhere. This is very of its time, shining a light on the 'punk' ethos, and reminding us all of how annoying it must have been to be around when it was happening. A lot of things which may have been 'shocking' are now annoying from this distance of time. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that they filmed it around parts of London which were still effected by the blitz, and rubble-strewen, in 1978.

Any thoughts? This was episodic and about punks. So it was annoying and at times pretentious. Toyah Wilcox plays a little, shaven headed punk who is violent and annoying, and there's a giant punk who can do ballet. She does ballet while naked people watch and there's a fire. Ooh, so shocking. 

It seems that there's no ethos to punks other than being annoying and unpredictable. There's no sense of disestablishment for them either, as there's still a huge link to fascist states, and it's still tied into the establishment - look at Johnny Rotten today, for instance shows that. A couple of performances of Rule Britainnia by a very unattractive 'model' doing nazi salutes, and a 'punk version of ' Jersusalem' both reminded me of that, and annoyed me. I'd have joined a ska band or something if I was around then.

The whole thing smacks of trying too hard to be edgy. Ballet performed around naked people, the queen mugged and robbed, sex in front of other people, incestuous brothers, nudity for no reason, and the gang of girl punks committing crimes and murders. The music itself is kept to the background, including a performance by Adam And The Ants I wasn't able to discern was good or not within the logic of the movie.

I've mentioned that Toyah Wilcox's character was annoying, and a few others were, but the oligarchic disco boss was the most annoying of all, punctuating everything with a shrill laugh. It was annoying the first time, he does it about 45, 607 times.

Would you recommend this? No. In fact this will make me take another extended break from this. Watching movies is much less fun when you know you have to write stuff about it, and that goes doubly for movies I didn't like.

Final thoughts? It took me a while to figure out that one of the bisexual incestuous brothers was Reg from Mum and from a million other things - he's Cato the Elder in Rome, for example. I hadn't seen him in anything but him as an old codger, so it was kind of funny to see him young.

My last question is, and I put it to you, What was the point of the Queen Victoria going back in time shite and the midget she had with her? No fuckin' reason at all, it's just there. 

 Here you go, this might be the last for a while (hint, it isn't, but it didn't help) - you can find the others right here.