The Full Monty

I saw this film in a theater in 1997ish, and I think I was on a date at the time. The Full Monty as a date movie? Yep. I remember laughing quite a lot. Simon Beaufoy's script is solid work.

Later, I found that The Full Monty seemed to lose impact on the small screen. (Write your own joke.) In this way, the film is a lot like There's Something About Mary, which had people rolling in theaters, but isn't nearly as bust-a-gut funny at home. In part, that's why I did not own a copy on DVD until recently.

I was in a Kmart a few weeks before Christmas this year (looking for Crispy M&Ms, which we'd heard were still available there), when I passed a display of DVDs and saw a copy of The Full Monty for $5. Yoink!

(We never found Crispy M&Ms, and since then we have determined they are long gone, a revelation that leaves my wife wanting. But I got this film on DVD — perhaps the last DVD that I'll ever purchase, so there's that.)

I remember not being able to understand half the dialogue in the theater (untrained ears 12 years ahead of marrying into a Brit family). Some lines still elude me without subtitles. I don't remember noticing the odd use of the word "soccer" in the intro, which doesn't fit at all (but probably got inserted to spare U.S. audiences).

One thing I don't recall is ever judging this film or feeling "icky" about the prospect of these middle-aged men turning to a life of stripping to make ends meet. Sure, say what you will about Robert Carlyle's character having his son along for things he probably shouldn't see, but aside from that, there's not much here to get worked up about, is there?

Consider it this way: Sheffield was once a booming steel town, and now it isn't. Reminds me a lot of my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, or really, the whole rust belt of America. People do what they can to survive even after the jobs have gone. They don't have a choice, do they?

There are worse things to turn to in times of desperation. Consider the meth problem, or the crime rate in general, of so many rust belt towns. Stripping for money seems rather tame in comparison to selling drugs to little kids or killing people.

If, in the Sheffield of The Full Monty, this is how depressed things have become, and if this is how desperate the people of Sheffield have become, then who are we to judge if these people find a little escape in going out to a strip club? Who are we to judge if people dance in one to make money to survive? What are people supposed to do?

I was unemployed for a time. (No, I never turned to stripping.) I remember the frustration of wanting to work and no one giving me a chance. I didn't want to work so I could eat, pay bills, etc. That was secondary to simply having a purpose and making something of myself. We forge our identities, in part, from our careers. I couldn't. That was incredibly painful.

During the '80s, my dad went through something similar. He was laid off from his factory job for 2 1/2 years. (No, he never turned to stripping, either.) He took a job cleaning RVs, and another job as a janitor. He drove farm trucks and tractors. He worked on cars. He opened his own farm equipment shop with my uncle. He took odd jobs. He did what he had to do, and life was very, very hard. At one point, my mom was in a panic because they only had $45 in the bank. My mom worked in a gas station and became the only source of income. My dad's identity as the breadwinner of the family was lost for a time. He seemed untethered, unhinged. He was miserable.

Now I understand, and I'm able to identify with the characters in The Full Monty quite a lot. These characters are out of options. They can't be choosy. They don't have the luxury of waiting for happiness and self-actualization. Sometimes happiness is just a warm plate of food.

By the end of the film, these men have overcome their own faults, for the most part, and their own insecurities. Their loved ones are proud of them for doing something in a town where nothing ever happens and where there are no opportunities. These men carved out their own opportunity and boldly went ahead.

We all do that, in a way. My parents did. I eventually did. You probably did. That's life.