a documentary film, no longer available in theaters, alas, or streaming.

Jubilation to celebrate the end of World War II opens the movie. People crowd the streets in London and dance and sing and kiss and embrace. There is a feeling of shared joy that seems impossible to replicate in today’s era when cell phones and social media divide us, send us into our self selected bubbles, casting a wary glance at anyone other than our kind.

Archival footage tells the story of extreme poverty in the 1930s, and subsequent annihilation of buildings. The war put people back to work after the Great Depression, but then destroyed housing where young marrieds wanted to live, could afford to.

Enter Clement Attlee, the Labour candidate who was elected, defeating Churchill. Attlee’s goal was to provide basic services lacking before the war. Nationalization of railroads, utilities, mines were undertaken, and most importantly, the health system was nationalized. The movie includes extensive interviews with people who grew up in poverty and benefited from the socialist reforms. One particularly moving interview includes a narrative of the how his mother, about to deliver her 12th child, was removed from his house on a stretcher, and gripped the young boy’s hand saying, “I’m going to make it” or “It’s going to be all right” or words to that effect. Of course the next day his cousin relayed the sad news that she had died, and later he learned the reason, she needed a pint of blood. The implication was this would not happen after the nationalization of health care when everyone was taken care of at no personal cost.

The hero of the National Health Service, Aneuran Bevan, had a thick skin as people criticized him. He carried on and made it all work for everyone.

The movie goes on to show that as time went on, and a conservative government took over, namely Margaret Thatcher, all of those gains were one by one cancelled. The dismantling of national health care goes on to this day. The natural monopolies to benefit everyone were considered better run by the capitalists who knew how to make more money from them. The idea of benefitting all faded.

The intention of Loach’s movie is clear. He means to show how the post war socialist measures to improve conditions for everyone have been dismantled by Thatcher and her desire to have capitalism lead the way in governance. The results are clear. People are back to fending for themselves, trying to get health care, a decent wage, affordable housing. That brief moment in history, which ran for thirty years plus, from 1945-1980, can be used as an example for the Occupy Wall Street protesters who protested income inequality and the corrupting influence of money on politics. Since this movie was released in 2013, right after the Occupy movement, which seems to have vanished without a trace, it feels dated in some ways. But the overall intention, of heralding a period when basic needs like health care and rail services, were provided by a socialist government, is clear, and how we could all continue to benefit from those efforts again.

The one thing I wish there were more of in this movie is an explanation of how economics works, and a bit of data to show how many people were saved as a result of the new health care system. How many more people were able to afford housing? What was the legacy of council housing, and what happened when the capitalists took it over to sell to the highest bidder. Those kinds of probing questions are left unanswered. Mostly we get anecdotal evidence from the working class laborers who lived through both eras. And some economic analysis (how I wish there were more) from a few academics.

Still, as my friend and I (two retired women) exited the theater, we were chatting about what we had just seen, when a young couple approached us and wanted to talk about it. It was invigorating to think that together, older generations who had seen crises be managed by competent governments, and young people who yearn for the same, might solve problems together.