Bread and Roses

Ken Loach = director

by Joanne Yamaguchi and Gus Calabrese
at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival

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Bread and Roses balances the delicate values of political positioning and psychological complexity. A film such as Bread and Roses, because it does NOT speak political jargonese and didacticism, is more palatable and thus more effective. Loach focuses attention on the human situations of the characters, a sort of modern day version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Through sheer eloquence in Loach's displaying of the positions, genuine understanding can occur.

Ken Loach renews and refreshes his vision as a passionate spokesperson for the working class with Bread and Roses. Loach possesses a vertical integrity in his cinema work. Bread and Roses is played with a cast of relative unknowns. It is a Los Angeles city-wide janitor strike.
Loach gives us that display from the point of view of Maya who has slipped illegally into the States. Maya moves from a job working as a barmaid, to a janitor working high-rise offices. Sam, a convincing young activist shows up one day in the high-rise office where Maya is working. At this juncture, the inquiry into the human relationship begins at the next level deeper into the root structure of the overall condition.