If you watch Look Back in Anger 1959 today, you might expect a dusty, black-and-white relic of British cinema. You’d be wrong. It’s loud. It’s mean. It’s suffocatingly claustrophobic. Richard Burton, playing the infamous Jimmy Porter, looks like he wants to crawl out of his own skin and take the audience down with him.
The film didn't just happen; it exploded.
By the late 1950s, British cinema was largely a collection of polite drawing-room comedies and stiff-upper-lip war movies. Then came Tony Richardson. He took John Osborne’s 1956 stage play—the one that basically invented the "Angry Young Man" trope—and dragged it out of the Royal Court Theatre and into the gritty, rain-slicked streets of the East Midlands. It changed everything.
The Raw Power of Jimmy Porter
Jimmy Porter is a nightmare. Honestly, if you met him at a party, you’d leave within five minutes. He’s overeducated, stuck running a candy stall in an outdoor market, and spends his Sundays berating his "upper-class" wife, Alison, played with a haunting, quiet desperation by Mary Ure.
Richard Burton was actually considered too old for the role by some critics at the time. He was in his thirties, playing a man in his mid-twenties. But man, does he bring the heat. His voice—that famous, gravelly Welsh baritone—turns Osborne’s dialogue into a series of rhythmic body blows. He isn't just complaining about his life; he’s mourning a world that doesn't have "any good, brave causes left."
That’s the core of Look Back in Anger 1959. It’s the sound of a generation that grew up after World War II, living in the shadow of the British Empire's collapse, feeling absolutely cheated. They were told they were winners, but they were still stuck in damp flats with shared toilets and no future.
👉 See also: Nothing to Lose: Why the Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins Movie is Still a 90s Classic
Why the 1959 Film Beats the Play
The play is famous, sure. But the movie does something the stage couldn't. Richardson used a "Kitchen Sink" realism style that feels almost documentary-like. You can practically smell the wet wool and the stale tea.
By taking the camera outside the apartment, we see the drabness Jimmy is fighting against. The cinematography by Oswald Morris is stark. It uses high-contrast lighting that makes the Midlands look like a beautiful, industrial graveyard. This wasn't the "swinging sixties" yet. This was the grey lead-up.
We also get a deeper look at the supporting cast. Claire Bloom plays Helena, Alison’s friend who despises Jimmy right up until the moment she falls for him. It’s a messy, uncomfortable shift. It shows that Jimmy’s magnetism isn't about being "nice"—it’s about a raw, dangerous energy that people were starved for in a repressed society.
The Social Explosion of the Kitchen Sink Drama
Before Look Back in Anger 1959, movies weren't really about the working class unless they were being patronized.
Richardson and Osborne formed Woodfall Film Productions specifically to break that mold. They wanted to show life as it was: the ironing boards, the cramped kitchens, the noise of the neighbors, and the genuine, vitriolic anger of the youth. They weren't interested in "proper" English. They wanted the spit and the fire.
✨ Don't miss: How Old Is Paul Heyman? The Real Story of Wrestling’s Greatest Mind
Interestingly, the film wasn't a massive box-office hit immediately. It was a bit too "real" for some. But its influence? Massive. It paved the way for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and eventually the entire British New Wave.
A Misunderstood Masterpiece?
Some people watch it now and just see a domestic abuser. They aren't entirely wrong. Jimmy Porter is cruel. He wishes for Alison to have a child and for it to die, just so she can "feel something." It’s horrific.
But if you view the film only through a modern lens of "problematic characters," you miss the historical grief. Jimmy is a veteran of a different kind of war—a class war where the casualties are hope and ambition. He hates Alison’s family because they represent the "Old England" that sent men to die while they drank sherry in lush gardens.
Technical Brilliance in the Midst of Chaos
The pacing is frantic.
One minute Jimmy is playing a jazz trumpet—a literal scream for attention—and the next he’s engaged in a vaudeville-style song and dance with his friend Cliff (played by a very young, very charming Gary Raymond). These moments of "fun" are almost more tragic than the fights. They show the boyishness Jimmy is trying to preserve in a world that wants him to be a cog in the machine.
🔗 Read more: Howie Mandel Cupcake Picture: What Really Happened With That Viral Post
Richardson’s direction is tight. He uses close-ups to create a sense of entrapment. You feel the heat of the iron Alison uses. You feel the dampness of the walls. It’s a masterclass in using environment to tell a story.
Key Differences from the Stage Play
- The Market Scenes: In the play, we only hear about Jimmy’s job. In the film, we see the drudgery of the market stall. It grounds his anger in reality.
- The Ending: No spoilers, but the film’s visual ending carries a different weight than the final lines of the play. It feels more like an exhausted truce than a resolution.
- The Supporting Characters: Characters like Ma Tanner are given more breathing room, adding a layer of genuine working-class empathy that balances Jimmy's ego.
Practical Ways to Revisit the Film
If you're going to watch Look Back in Anger 1959, don't just put it on in the background while you scroll through your phone. It demands focus.
- Watch the lighting. Notice how the shadows in the apartment seem to close in on the characters as the film progresses.
- Listen to the rhythm. Osborne’s writing is almost like jazz. The monologues have beats, pauses, and crescendos.
- Research the Suez Crisis. Context is everything here. The film was made just after Britain's global standing took a massive hit, and that national embarrassment is baked into Jimmy’s rage.
- Compare it to "The Entertainer." Another Osborne/Richardson collaboration (starring Laurence Olivier). It shows how they were deconstructing the "Great British Myth" from multiple angles.
The legacy of this film is everywhere. You see it in the gritty realism of Ken Loach's work. You see it in the "angry" lyrics of 1970s punk rock. You even see it in modern TV dramas that aren't afraid to let their protagonists be deeply, fundamentally unlikable.
Look Back in Anger 1959 didn't just capture a moment in time; it captured a feeling of restlessness that never really goes away. It’s about the realization that the world isn't fair, and the terrifying question of what you're supposed to do with that information.
Go find a high-quality restoration. Turn up the volume. Let Jimmy Porter scream at you for two hours. It’s an exhausting experience, but it’s one of the most honest things ever put on celluloid.
To truly understand the evolution of modern drama, start by tracing the lineage of the "Angry Young Man" back to this specific 1959 production. Analyze how the film breaks the "fourth wall" of class expectations by forcing the viewer into the physical space of the disenfranchised. Finally, compare the 1959 cinematic version with modern stage revivals to see how Jimmy Porter’s vitriol translates to a 21st-century audience—you'll find that while the slang has changed, the underlying resentment toward stagnant social structures remains remarkably familiar.