Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. 1961 Bryanston Films, owned and distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker, Norman Rossington
Producer: Tony Richardson
Director: Karel Reisz
Available at Amazon.

In England during the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a cultural movement called kitchen sink realism, which usually depicted domestic situations of the working class British living in apartments or townhouses while spending their off-hours in pubs discussing social or political issues. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, adapted from Alan Sillitoe's novel of the same name, is considered to be the first "kitchen sink drama" film of the 1960s.

Arthur Seaton (Finney) is a young machinist working in a Nottingham factory, and he's having an affair with Brenda (Roberts), the wife of an older co-worker. He's also in a relationship with Doreen (Field), a woman closer to his age. Brenda gets pregnant during the course of the movie, and Arthur asks his aunt (Baker) for advice on aborting the child.

We see Arthur leading his reckless lifestyle simply to compensate for his boring job, and he does not want to become like his father (Frank Pettitt), whose entire existance seems to revolve around sitting in front of the television all day, every day. He is confident in his own manhood, viewing himself as superior to everyone else.

After Brenda's news, she discovers that Arthur is also seeing Doreen, which increases tensions between everyone. Doreen is an old fashioned girl, insisting on values like marriage and home ownership before she considers going to bed with Arthur, which still manages to captivate the young man. Brenda's husband discovers the affair, and has two soldiers (one is his brother) physically deal with Arthur in the streets. After recovering, Arthur returns to work a changed man, contemplating settling down and spending the rest of his life with Doreen.

Recommended movie.