Big Melt, The

Released by: BFI
Released on: March 17th, 2014.
Director: Martin Wallace
Cast: N/A
Year: 2013

The Movie:

Directed by Martin Wallace with music courtesy of Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, the 2013 BBC/BFI co-production of The Big Melt is a seventy minute long audio/video collage that mixes a wealth of interesting and rather varied archival clips with some often times emotionally complex musical accompaniment.

Using clips from as far back as 1917 through to more current excerpts shot in the 1970s, the focus of this project is on the steel mills of Sheffield, an industrial city that is home to the third largest metropolitan population in all of England. The city was the subject of a population explosion when it became a steel manufacturing hub in the 1800s, which lasted through to the 1970s and 1980s before the decline caused by international competition took its toll. Like a lot of industrial cities, it would seem that Sheffield has bounced back but The Big Melt isn't concerned with that. This is, by all accounts and purposes, a tribute to those who worked in the mills and the factories through the decades, the British working class that toiled away to support their families or to do their part for the needs of the military during the Second World War. Some industrial training videos and animated propaganda pieces also makes their way into the mix, making this as much a perverse educational video as it is an industrial travelogue.

The footage is interesting and quite varied. We get lots of black and white clips that show the early days in all their ragged glory and then mixed right in there plenty of color clips to provide some eye catching visual contrast. As the footage spools out before our eyes we see men clad only in overalls reaching dangerously close to pools of liquid metal hot enough to melt the flesh from their bones without so much as a second thought, and so too do we see them relaxing in the pub after a hard day's work. We see women take their place in the work force to further the war effort and we see interesting comparisons between the mechanics of factory work and industry and those of human behavior. As such, there's more to this than just some cool old clips of steel being made into cutlery and bombs and in fact the piece goes so far as to create an homage to the very lifestyles that would be common place during the city's boom years. Further to this point we see some telling footage of children playing amongst the ruins and on the rough and dirty streets of the city and know that they too will inevitably wind up working in the same factories their parents then slaved away in to feed and clothe them; the circle of life. If it weren't apparent in that footage, it certainly is in the snippets that intertwine the middle of the film in which a young man paws away and the white stocking clad legs of his pretty girlfriend atop a pretty hill while the factories belch smoke and toxins into the air behind them.

An equally important part of the project is the contributions from Jarvis Cocker (a Sheffield native), who works here alongside Pulp cohorts Steven Mackey and Candida Doyle as well as members of The City Of Sheffield Brass Band, Richard Hawley, The Forgemasters, harpist Serafina Steer and a youth choir. Cocker provides vocals for one song and one song only, the rest of the music is basically instrumental with periodic backgrounds from the aforementioned choir filling in the blanks rather effectively. Not surprisingly, an instrumental Pulp's Sheffield Sex City appears on the soundtrack as does, for the big finish, an instrumental version of This Is Hardcore that plays out and builds wonderfully while the factories and their inhabitants pound away, the sexual metaphor as obvious as it is effective and, yes, relevant, hammering home the point that this just about steel and its industrial importance but equally the people who populated the city and their role in making this happen. It's a bizarre and fascinating document set to a great soundtrack and an overtly sexual rhythm that is as engrossing as it is hypnotically strange.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The Big Melt is made up entirely of archival footage so it's understandable that some clips look better than others. For the most part, however, the 1.33.1 fullframe transfer looks very good. Yes, some of the footage from 1917 isn't in the best of shape but as we move forward in time things certainly improve. Some of the color footage shot inside the factories looks fantastic with bright orange vats of molten steel pouring into molds and taking shape while skin tones generally look quite good. Some of the bright colors in the sixties and seventies fashions also pop quite nicely here.

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is quite good. There's really not a whole lot of dialogue here, just a few snippets from some of the clips used, so the focus is obviously on the music and it translates well to the dual channel format. The levels are nicely balanced, there's good range and presence and there's some solid depth to track as well.

The main extra on the disc is The Big Melt Performed Live At The Crucible which is a recording of the 2013 performance that Cocker and company did in front of a live audience with the film playing behind them. It's interesting to see and a nice companion piece to the feature version of the movie. Though the music is basically the same, here we get the added attraction of seeing a lanky, bearded Cocker strutting about like some sort of mad conductor (which is, in fact, pretty much exactly what he is here).

Additionally we get a nine minute interview with Jarvis Cocker and Martin Wallace in which they talk about how and why this project came to exist and where their respective involvement originated film. The Big Melt In Rehearsal is a quick three and a half minute piece in which Cocker and the various musicians that he performed with for this project practice for the main event. The movie's original trailer, some animated menus and chapter selection round out the extras on the disc.

Inside the keepcase for this release is a full color illustrated booklet with credits for the production and essays from Jarvis Cocker, Martin Wallace and BFI curator Jan Faull that detail the history and cultural significance of the project.

The Final Word:

More of an art project than a narrative feature, The Big Melt is nevertheless a pretty interesting document of a city and the industry that was, for so long, the blood that rain between its veins. The footage here runs the gamut from frightening to beautiful and the musical accompaniment compliments this range of emotions perfectly. The BFI's DVD release is a good one, offering up some quality extras and a very nice presentation.