Release Year: 1997 Rating: R Duration: 91 minutes Other Title: Eggs, Beans and Chippendales, No Man's Land Director: Peter Cattaneo Producer: Uberto Pasolini
synopsis
Set in the British steel town of Sheffield, a group of out-of-work steel workers are organized by fun loving, slightly irresponsible Gaz into a Chippendale-style dance troupe. The group is made up of Dave, Gaz's overweight best friend who has recently been struck with impotency; Gerald, an ex-forman and amateur ballroom dancer; Horse, an old guy with dance moves that slightly resemble the funky chicken, the bus stop, and the bump; and Guy, who, despite his love of classic Hollywood musicals, is hopelessly cursed with no sense of rhythm. Despite these handicaps, they are soon dancing to the sounds of Donna Summer, Hot Chocolate, Gary Glitter, Sister Sledge, and Tom Jones.
Sheffield, England, in the early 1970s had an economy a strong as the steel it produced, as a public relations documentary under the credits tells us. But this is twenty-five years later and the mills have closed. The people who planned to work in the mills the rest of their lives are on the dole and scratching to find subsistence jobs. Gaz (played by Robert Carlyle--the weird Begbie of TRAINSPOTTING) has lost his wife and son to another man, mostly because he cannot provide for them. He has only tenuous visiting rights with his son, Nathan (William Snape) but pushes the law and has his son as a nearly constant companion. Gaz does have an idea how to make a little money. When the Chippendales male strippers play in town they pack a local rented hall. If they can make money so easily, perhaps Gaz and his friend Dave (Mark Addy) can put on the same sort of a show.
