Did anyone else see this last night. A very interesting and thought provoking film. Two strads to it, one being about the typical methods of slaughtering meat for food in this country (plus Kosher and Halal) but far more interesting was the portrait of the workers in what must be one of the last heavily manual jobs left in a formerly heavy industrial area.
I'm intrigued to know what others thought of this, I'm still trying to formulate my own thoughts about it.
― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 08:11 (twenty years ago)
Incredibly good. (Why-o-why-o-why...) More like this, BBC!
Thought it would be just about the animals, but was about the workforce just as much - the bullying and brutality, and their fear of the dole. Depressing, but utterly compelling.
― Snubfin, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)
television was good last night, with this and the serbia/bosnia football thing.
i thought the program was good on two counts, the slaughter methods, and the attitudes of the people. its easy to shut out just how meat is processed and made, and its good to see it happen, to have it brought home to you, not just the visceral and harsh way in which it still happens, but the hygiene levels. the people, as ed said were interesting, mesmerizing in places. to be surrounded by that every day must be dehumanizing in a way. or must it? liberal sensitivites wanting to shut out the realities of food production, whilst looking forward to cutlets tonite?
on the one hand, we lament the loss of industry, the loss of small industries into huge production line factories, yet here was a smaller industry, which seemed not to have changed a great deal in years. cake and eat it, sometimes
i didnt feel angry, it was depressing more than anything. why? i dont know, the apathy and attitudes of the people. perhaps, or is it people doing work i couldnt imagine doing? as the man said, many people dont last the day there, it has to take a particular type of person. yet we have become more squeamish about stuff like this. would working in a slaughterhouse have raised eyebrows as much, 40 years ago, 80?
though i thought the programme was good, it wasnt immune to 'its grim up north' manipulative framing, within seconds of turning it on, it was obvious (ok, i thought rochdale rather than oldham, but, close enough!). it didnt need to resort to that, the soft incongruous piano music, getting one of the lads to recite some poem, while in black and white. whatever you thuoght of those lads, patronizing them is no good!
and i didnt like it saying "will you be eating meat again?", let me form my own opinion please!
even so, i did think the program was good, most of the time, and the people came across strongly, you got a real sense of them, and what its like there
as it is, im eating less and less meat these days, i dont eat red meat at all now. would a program like this have an effect on people. you would think so, but, i think we've been ingrained for so long not to think of the process when we see the nice packages in the shop, even when they still have heads.
― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)
An interesting point, I thing the slaughter man's motto as recited over the credits in (almost) sepia black and white was what the older slaughtermen were trying to instill in the younger. The job satisfaction that comes from pride in a job well down, an animal dispatched cleanly and humanely But as, you intimate, the younger men got their kicks in other ways, through bullying and a certain degree of brutality.
― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:28 (twenty years ago)