Prometheus (1998 film)

Prometheus
Poster of the film
Written byTony Harrison
Screenplay byTony Harrison
Release date
  • 1998 (1998)
Running time
130 minutes
CountryBritain
LanguagesEnglish and Ancient Greek
Budget1.5 million pounds.[1]

Prometheus is a 1998 film-poem created by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison, starring Micheal Feast in the role of Hermes. The film-poem examines the political and social issues connected to the fall of the working class in England, amidst the more general phenomenon of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, using the myth of Prometheus as a metaphor for the struggles of the working class and the devastation brought on by political conflict and unfettered industrialisation. It was broadcast on Channel 4 and was also shown at the Locarno Film Festival. It was used by Harrison to highlight the plight of the workers both in Europe and in Britain. His film-poem begins at a post-industrialist wasteland in Yorkshire brought upon by the politics of confrontation between the miners and the government of Margaret Thatcher.[1][2][3][4][5][6] It has been described as "the most important artistic reaction to the fall of the British working class" at the end of the twentieth century.

  1. ^ a b Edith Hall. "Tony Harrison's Prometheus: A View from the Left" (PDF). ...an essential requirement in a film where the most unlikely wheezing ex-miner is slowly made to represent Prometheus himself
  2. ^ Helen Morales (23 August 2007). Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. pp. 60–. ISBN 978-0-19-157933-2. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  3. ^ Maya Jaggi (31 March 2007). "Beats of the heart". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  4. ^ Locarno Film Festival (2011). "Prometheus (1998)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2013. ...where he sees a Prometheus statue fashioned from the bodies of unemployed Yorkshire miners. As the statue makes a journey in an open truck through the countries of the former Eastern Europe, it brings forth memories of the past and WWII horrors (Auschwitz, Dresden)
  5. ^ Peter Robinson, University of Hull. "Facing Up to the Unbearable: The Mythical Method in Tony Harrison's Film/poems". Open Colloquium 1999 TONY HARRISON'S POETRY, DRAMA AND FILM : THE CLASSICAL DIMENSION The Open University. ...and, of course, the huge statue of Prometheus, nicknamed 'Golden Balls', in the film of the same name.
  6. ^ Lorna Hardwick (15 May 2003). Reception Studies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-0-19-852865-4. Retrieved 12 May 2013.