The Full Monty (1997)
Good evening and happy early Thanksgiving ILTBTA readers! Our cinematic subject this time around is The Full Monty, the 1997 British dramedy about a group of struggling men who decide to stage their own one-night-only striptease show. The draw? They’re willing to go “the full monty”: that is, completely naked. We won’t tease you any longer, let’s get on with the show!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: Sounds like this is about to get randy!
Tyler: I know the phrase and what it implies, but I had NO idea there was a movie associated with it. Cue the stripper music!
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for "the full monty" - total nudity.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
A slick promo video from the early 70s triumphantly declares the steel town of Sheffield “a city on the move” as the opening credits roll. Unfortunately, 25 years later, the steel mills have been shut down, and most of the workers are redundant and slightly desperate for work and cash. Former steelworkers Gary “Gaz” and Dave have taken to stealing scrap metal from abandoned mills, where the factory band is the only thing still working. They sometimes take Gaz’s son Nathan (aka Nathe1) with them, much to the displeasure of his ex-wife2 Mandy and her boyfriend Barry. The tension is further exacerbated by the fact that Gaz is behind on child support payments. Meanwhile, though he’d never admit it, Dave is self-conscious about being overweight on top of being unemployed. His wife Jean tells her friends that it feels like Dave’s given up. It’s bleak out here, people!
Ellen: Talk about scene-setting! Only thing that took me out of it was when the newsreel called it “soccer” lol.
Tyler: God bless subtitles because whoa nelly these accents!
There’s a stir among the female populace of Sheffield when the Chippendales come to town! Spotting Jean in the crowd, Gaz and Nathe (inexplicably) sneak in to see what the fuss is about. While Gaz was distracted eavesdropping on Jean in the bathroom, Nathe was drinking leftover beers in the club! He’s hungover the next day and asks why they can’t just do “normal stuff.” Later, at the Job Club with the other laid off workers, their former foreman, Gerald Cooper, is the only one wearing a suit and trying to get everyone to get their act together. The lads are far more interested in discussing how if those Chippendale boys can make bank off stripping, surely so could they?
Tyler: This is where the movie started to lose me on its main protagonist, Gaz. Despite clearly loving his son, he is just objectively not a good dad, putting him in more than one dangerous situation in the first, like, thirty minutes of the movie (with Nathe referencing others). Then, he’s at the Job Club trying to think of harebrained get-rich-quick schemes (so he can catch up on child support payments …) instead of, ya know, looking for an actual job. I understand that plopping him in front of a computer so he can find a job at a supermarket wouldn’t make a compelling movie, but the movie we are watching needs to do more to endear me to him, because Dave is so far carrying that burden.
Discussing the matter while on a jog, Gaz and Dave come across a broken down car. Dave helps make the repair for the guy inside, who’s super awkward about it, barely speaking. Dave at first thinks it’s because he eventually recognizes the man as the security guard from the steel mill, but soon runs back, understanding this dude was trying to kill himself! Gaz and Dave save him, learning his name is Lomper. With the guard on their side, they have a place to practice! Gaz’s first attempt results in coins pouring from his shirt and Nathe’s eternal embarrassment.
Tyler: Forcing your kid to watch you pathetically strip is horrifying, Nathe deserves so much better than all of this.
Perhaps to end his own misery, Nathe suggests getting someone from the local dance school to teach them, and what ho! Former foreman Gerald and his wife are regulars. The group comes to realize several things: Gerald’s wife does not know he’s been laid off, he’s got an important job interview, and gnomes are all over their yard. After some gnome-based shenanigans, Gerald eventually agrees, and they hold auditions of sorts. They find Horse, an older man who can really dance, and Guy, a hottie with no talent but a huge … amount of confidence in his body. They’re so broke they have to steal the tape of Flashdance that they wanted for inspiration. Dave’s self-consciousness is a running theme, but hey: at least he’s a better welder than Jennifer Beals!
Ellen: Great joke when they realize they can’t afford the tape, Gaz is like “unbelievable, we’re so broke it’s £4.99 and we’re still a fiver short”
Tyler: I really appreciate the portrayal of Dave's self consciousness about his body. While the fact that this is a movie made by men starring a bunch of men can be negatively evident in some ways, this was an endearing surprise given how little it’s discussed. If only poor Dave could’ve just hung around for “dad bods” to be a thing!
Ellen: I came around on this plotline as we progressed, because Gaz just calls him “fat bastard” half the time, and the body-shaming of it all just felt very of the time, and it would have aged even worse if they didn’t address it (as it as, still hasn’t aged great).
The first rehearsal is a trainwreck, but a football analogy from Horse3 at least gets them all on the same page. They all go to Gerald’s house to practice at least taking off their clothes in front of each other and stop the repossession of some of Gerald’s housewares in the process. Gaz is sewing them all tearaway pants because oh yeah - he learned to sew in prison! Nathe is present for all of this of course, including when Gaz attempts to borrow £100 from Mandy for a deposit to secure the club for a night (though he doesn’t tell her that) despite being £700 behind on child support. Nathe decides to take the money out of his own savings, because he has faith. The group puts up posters around town advertising HOT METAL, one night only, women only. Two local women ask why they’d pay to see these yahoos when the real Chippendales were just here, and Gaz panics and says it’s because they go all the way: the full monty!
Ellen: Gaz’s line to Mandy on why he needs the money is “you have to speculate to accumulate,” and Tyler and I both gagged out loud.
The boys are really getting into the spirit of things, even subconsciously vibing in time to “Hot Stuff” while in the unemployment line. Dave’s negative body image gets the better of him, though, and he takes a security job at the local grocery store Asda and misses the dress rehearsal (including red leather thongs) for Horse’s family at the factory. Their fairly good showing is interrupted by the fuzz! Guy and Lomper manage to escape to Lomper’s house, where they start making eyes 👀. In less lucky news, Gaz and Gerald are arrested for indecent exposure, costing Gaz the right to see Nathan. Gerald’s wife finds out he’s been lying for six months as their house is repossessed. Somehow it’s even bleaker than we started!
Tyler: The Guy-Lomper relationship angle was so unexpected and seemed to have come out of absolutely nowhere. I love that it was included at all, but I think I would've liked more than a glancing mention or two of it.
Lomper’s mom passes away, and the boys come back together for the funeral, where he leads the factory band in “Abide with Me.”4 Shortly thereafter, the secret is out: there was a newspaper article about their escapades! The boys are kind of horrified, but perk up when the barkeep tells them they’ve already sold 200 tickets! The night of the show arrives, and Dave is still not feeling up to it. Jean suspects he’s having an affair because he’s been acting so damn weird, so he finally confesses and dejectedly wonders who would ever want to see him dance. She’s like, “ME, IDIOT! Get out there!” He arrives at the club to find a full house of 400 people! Uh, wait, isn’t it only supposed to be women?!
Ellen: And the resolution for Dave that someone can love you even if your body isn’t up to someone else’s standard of perfection that you’ve internalized: very good!
Basically everyone they’ve ever met is in the audience, and they are newly petrified. Dave convinces them to get out there, just for one night. Gaz is stubbornly refusing to go, but Nathe convinces him to follow through in the end. The men come out to a hooting and hollering crowd, dancing to Tom Jones' version of "You Can Leave Your Hat On". With their hats being the last thing to go, it’s a smashing success!
Tyler: Gaz randomly wimping out only to be convinced by his son to get out there is laaaaaaaame. We already got the triumphant pre-climax moment of Dave returning and firing them up, so it doesn’t fulfill that role. And given that Gaz was the most gung-ho about this from the get-go, there was never a point where we could conceivably be convinced that he wouldn’t dance.
Ellen: Toxic masculinity is a hell of a drug.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … The Sheffield Job Club!
Did globalization take your job away, leaving you with nothing to do during the day? Tired of your wife nagging you to make some money so you can afford that skiing trip you’ve been talking about for years? Well if you’re in the South Yorkshire area, come hang out at The Sheffield Job Club! Hang out with some other lads (no ladies allowed!) who also got shafted by The Man and relive the glory days while drinking and smoking. Oh and we also have one (1) computer if you want to seek employment for some reason.
Tell the chap loitering outside the Job Club that ILTBTA sent you and maybe he’ll let you bum a smoke.
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
The Full Monty’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
The origins of the phrase “the full monty” are unknown with several hypotheses suggested, including: British Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery’s preference for a large breakfast; a full three-piece suit from the British tailoring company Montague Burton; and jargon from gamblers meaning the entire pot, deriving from the card game monte.
Along with the titular slang, the film features other local dialects, such as nesh (meaning a person especially susceptible to cold; used widespread across the North Midlands) and jennel (an alley; local to Sheffield).
The screenplay for The Full Monty was written by Simon Beaufoy, a British screenwriter whose writing credits also include Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Channel 4 Films paid for the screenplay to be written but ultimately declined to invest in it, with Fox Searchlight ultimately financing it for about £3 million.
Beaufoy also wrote and co-created the 2023 Full Monty TV adaptation of the same name.
Ellen: Very confusing for me while I was searching for gifs and being like “why is Gaz so old??”
Referenced in the movie and serving as an inspiration for Gaz and his mates, Chippendales was founded in 1979 by Somen “Steve” Banerjee. After Chippendales’ success spawned several similar nightclubs, Banerjee apparently attempted to burn down at least three rival clubs. He also plotted to have at least three business associates killed, which caused his 1993 arrest for murder for hire, racketeering, and attempted arson. This chaos was most recently portrayed in the Hulu miniseries Welcome to Chippendales, in which Banerjee was portrayed by Kumail Nanjiani.
The climactic scene in which the crew actually goes “the full monty” was a surprise to the 50 or so extras, who were deliberately kept out of the dark on the full nudity in order to get genuine reactions for the final shot.
Composer Anne Dudley won the Oscar for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score. The Best Original Score award was split into two categories (Dramatic and Musical/Comedy) two years prior after four Walt Disney Animation wins in six years. The chairman of the Academy’s music branch said: “People were voting for the songs, not the underscores. We felt that Academy members outside the music branch didn't distinguish between the two. So when a score like The Lion King is competing against a drama like Forrest Gump, it's apples and oranges – not in the quality of the score, but in the way it functions in the movie. There's a big difference.” It was later re-combined in 1999 after the change proved unpopular with the other branches of The Academy.
Ellen: I loved the score in this, so I’m glad to see it was rewarded!
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role5. And the nomnomnominees are:
A few gulps of leftover beer at the club
Pick’n’mix candy from Asda
Some Chinese food, even though you don’t like Chinese food and you know you’ve told your dad this before
And the Oscar goes to … the Chinese food! Unfortunately, Nathe has eaten it already because it’s better than nothing, so we will accept this award on its behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to get The Academy a new garden gnome, despite the fact that their spouse isn’t super into it. Top level, this made me laugh a lot more than many of the purported “comedies” that populate the list of nominees. I also think, as Tyler describes below, it managed to tackle a lot of topics that hit people where they live, and though much of it was very “of the time,” I think they were generally handled with empathy. That being said, it’s kind of a bizarre choice. The other nominees this year were Titanic, As Good As It Gets, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential. That’s about as broad of a movie cross section you can get with only five nominees. This could have hit deeper if Gaz in particular showed any signs of growing or being a good person. I know he loves his son, but his scammy vibe just doesn't really change, and he’s not even fully committed to his own bit until Nathe yells at him. It could have hit harder, but you know what, I had a good time!
Tyler: I’d like to buy The Academy a ticket to Hot Metal then enjoy a peaceful night in by myself. I have mixed yet not particularly strong feelings about The Full Monty. I give it major props for including so many themes that are rarely discussed in mainstream movies, let alone those with a largely all-male cast: I’m stealing from the Wikipedia page here, but unemployment, fathers’ rights, depression, impotence, homosexuality, body image, working class culture, and suicide are all touched upon in one way or another.
I suppose my main complaint, conversely, is just that: that many of them are only touched upon and not given a little more room to breathe. For a movie with such a singular focus on going all the way on one thing, it gives surprisingly little depth to so many others. With a 91-minute runtime, I can’t believe I’m saying this but it actually could have stood to be a little bit longer. With more space to more fully explore some of these topics, I think it could’ve been a fuller and ultimately more satisfying movie. Gaz was also a bit of a selfish asshole, too, which doesn’t usually make for a compelling main character you want to root for. Some more depth for the other dancers could’ve lightened Gaz’s (and Dave’s) burden of carrying the emotional weight of the movie.
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
To celebrate the stars of the holiday season (Star of Bethlehem, Star of David, star on top of a tree, etc.), this December will be A Star Is Born month! Since this famously-remade story was twice nominated for Best Picture, we’ll be covering them in our next two posts. First up is the one that started it all: the original 1937 adaptation. Starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March, this (and all the others, presumably) tells the story of an aspiring actress and the fading movie star who helps launch her career.
This version of A Star Is Born is available for free on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and other random streaming services like Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Plex, and Freevee. Basically, you should not pay to watch this movie.
Until then, …
Ellen: Chalk that up as a never-before-heard nickname for me.
Tyler: Honestly, I just thought it was a weird English name I’d never heard of. I should’ve known that a man who goes by Gaz would also shorten his child’s name.
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Tyler: The “offsides trap” analogy was so perfect and fitting for this movie.
Ellen: Fun fact: my Dad has threatened to forever haunt anyone who dares play that at his funeral.
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
Wow, so honored that I made the footnotes (#4). Funny, but hauntingly true! Don't do it!