Blue Jean

Jean (Rosy McEwen) is an attractive 20-something frosty haired gym teacher. She's asked by one of her colleagues at the school to go out for drinks with some of their fellow teachers - might even be a guy or two with an eye out for her. Jean, who has a female partner, demurs not by replying directly, but coming up with a a lame excuse. It's just one of the times that Jean is confronted with telling the truth, but "lies" instead.

England. Late 80s. Margaret Thatcher's conservative Britain to be precise. The nation is in full moral panic mode and the very suspicion that a teacher might be gay is grounds for removal. The law was called Section 28. To Writer-Director Georgia Oakley's credit, BLUE JEAN never becomes a polemic. It simply presents the reality of what people like Jean were going through at the time. Oakley's screenplay unfolds at a natural pace and the audience is given the details of Jean's background at an unhurried pace.

Jean's girlfriend is Viv (Kerrie Hayes) who, by contrast, is very much 'out'. She flaunts her sexuality and makes no apologies. Also complicating things for Jean is a new student, Lois (Lucy Halliday), who happens to hang out in the same local gay bar. Jean's family is little help, even her sister Sasha (Aoife Kennan) who outwardly supports her sibling, but is nonetheless concerned about protecting her young son when she is around.

The performances here all very good, with McEwen embodying her character's ambivalence, while also demonstrating fortitude. It's a tricky balance which Oakley's filmmaking ably abets. Oakley also creates a vivid depiction of the era with details of the LGBTQ community at the time. Songs by New Order, Letta Mbulu and Colourbox and others grace the soundtrack and the screenplay is filled with precise and distinctive terminology. There are not great revelations or epiphanies for Jean, but, Oakley imbues her main character with an inner strength that is palpable.

Section 28 was repealed in 2003.

I often cheer for movies like Blue Jean. They are important in a response to the big lavish entertainment films. But I can't quite get the hang of this particular film.

This is a film about LGBT history, with a main character set in 80s Britain with Thatcher's controversial No Clause 28 legislation as a backdrop. As a gym teacher, she experiences challenges in living out who she really is, in the face of society's view of gays and queers. Important topic. But we have seen this before, and in my opinion also seen it portrayed better before.

In this film, a lot is very good, the era is depicted well. The main character in the film is good in the role of a person who has to make important and not least right choices for herself. But on the way there she makes a lot of strange choices. In particular, her handling of her job as a teacher in meeting with the students is not very credible in my opinion. I think the narrative stagnates in the descriptions of her anguish and doubts. The film does not get out of a rut, and the main character becomes somewhat one-dimensional and I think it became less engaging as time went on.

The film is still not bad, and has a fantastic amount of good 80s music as a soundtrack.

"Jean" (Rosy McEwan) is a physical education teacher at a school in Northern Engand. Privately, she is having a relationship with the out and proud "Viv" (Kerrie Hayes) but the emphasis here is very much on the "privately" - something that her confident girlfriend struggles to comprehend. When "Lois" (Lucy Halliday) joins her netball class, then runs into her in a bar later, things become complicated for "Jean" and the remainder of the film illustrates just a short segment of her troubled life as her pupils start to put two and two together and mischief and malevolence rears their very ugly heads. As a gay lad who lived at the time I am actually a little tired of films that make out that "Thatcher" was some alien space invader sent by God to cleanse society. The views of her government represented massive numbers of people in Britain - across the political spectrum - who were terrified about the perceived adverse influences on children of what they saw as "permissive" practices. Rather than acknowledge these concerns as legitimate (at the time) and put some national context into this story, this film really only takes a couple of people whose relationship never comes across as especially strong anyway, and try to make a greater political point. To have been successful there, balance is essential. The underlying plot issues are potent, but they are not developed anywhere near enough to create substantial characters and instead offer us a rather undercooked swipe at a system that was as broadly representative then as it is not (thankfully) now. The production is all a bit basic and though McEwan offers us a considered performance and the film is certainly worth watching, I had really hoped for something just a bit deeper and stronger.

The closet she came!, and all the rest of the tyneside dykes and dallies, in the roaring 80's british lgbtq+ redemtion movement, a time where gay and lesbians really stood out as real individualees, fighting for the rights to be equaly treated by society trying to squelch the heterosexual dominance on common settings in life like being the teacher and nurse and coalminer as they were educated as, without meing branded as children molestors and pedophiles, which was a normal rank in these days...

a really emotional flick about lesbianism in the thickest of geordieland, up on the northeast coast of england,where the pitches are so muddy and the only thing you dream of is sun and sand, just like the fight the main caracter in this flick goes through. Being in a rather voulnarable position as a P. E. teacher at the local school youre able to follow the ups and downs of her social life as well as her professional careere, as well as her abilities to sipht out new young girls on the block, which in the end becomes a harrowing threat that will stigmatize and ruin her life as a working teacher.

Loads of good old dj emeralds youll hear if viewing blue jean, well entwined into the bleach and grey landscape of blustery tyneside, ill be better of going to yewtree gardens or maybe it was peartree somewhere walkerville ne6 4tr, a very well made gay movie for sure...

so lets break the walls down in the end, just like the romans did in...wallsend...be proud of yourself whoever you are and have a good time viewing mrs mcewen, quite an enchanting one. A recommend from the ever so grumpy old man.

It wasn't all that long ago when the LGBTQ+ community not only didn't have legal protections for its rights, but also faced blatant discrimination against its constituents, prejudiced initiatives aimed at denying them equal treatment under the law and even subjecting them to lawfully sanctioned ostracism. This was true even in "civilized" and "progressive" societies like those found in North America and Europe. And it prompted individuals to live in fear of losing their jobs and leaving them open to ridicule without ramifications, not to mention disrespect and mistrust from their own families. Those chilling conditions are ominously brought to light in this period piece drama set in the UK in the late 1980s, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government sought the passage of Section 28, legislation aimed at prohibiting activities openly promoting homosexuality, a bill carrying wide-sweeping implications for the LGBTQ+ community. Many of its constituents, like a young lesbian physical education teacher (Rosy McEwen), retreated into the closet to keep out of sight. But those efforts derailed whatever social progress had been made, damaging those individuals' self-esteem and creating a divisive schism between those who vociferously demanded justice and those who chose to keep a low profile to protect themselves, as evidenced by the experiences of the teacher and her out and proud girlfriend (Kerrie Hayes). Writer-director Georgia Oakley's debut feature does a fine (if somewhat predictable) job of illustrating this rift and the effects it had on both the public and personal lives of these people, an effort that earned the film a 2022 BAFTA Award nomination for Best Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Admittedly, the picture's opening act meanders a bit, but, once it gets on track, when the emergence of various damning revelations threatens to blow things wide open, it steadily grows more powerful and heartfelt, qualities supported by the fine performances of the cast, solid writing, and its skillfully crafted atmospheric cinematography and production design. It also provides viewers with a potent cautionary tale about the effects of initiatives like Section 28 (which was in force from 1988 to 2003) and the parallels to this legislation that are currently under consideration in various US jurisdictions. It effectively shows us how Jean became so blue - and how we should seek to prevent the same from happening to the rest of us.