One truly great thing we have here in Britain is our film Industry. We have made some of the greatest films of all time on our Isles, films such as Trainspotting, Withnail & I, The Ladykillers and so on. Conversely, we then have the hidden gems that seem to go unnoticed by the rest of the world. I know there will be a lot of people reading this article who probably have seen all five of these films and wouldn't class them as underrated - this is just my personal pick. If it was up to me, everybody would have seen these 5 films at least once in their life. Here are 5 underrated British classics you need to watch...
5. My Name Is Joe
My Name Is Joe is one of Ken Loach's finest achievements. It's the story of Joe Kavanagh (Peter Mullan), a reformed alcoholic who can't forget that he once hit a woman. He is unemployed, but does various odd jobs around Glasgow and runs a fairly hopeless football team. However, his life changes when he meets Sarah (Louise Goodall), a social worker. Ken Loach is famous for his realistic and humanistic approach to filmmaking. Usually he depicts disadvantaged, flawed characters lost in an uncaring and often antagonistic society. In this film his central character finds himself more at the mercy of his own devils than society's when he ends up torn between conflicting loyalties, a situation which has implications for his own precarious personality. Joe is wonderfully created by Peter Mullan, his performance makes the tragedy of his character impact on us, the audience, dreadfully.