Eat the Rich (film)

Eat the Rich is a 1987 British black comedy film directed by Peter Richardson. A co-production between Channel Four Films, Iron Fist Motion Pictures and Michael White Productions, it features cast members from the popular television series The Comic Strip Presents....

Eat the Rich
Directed byPeter Richardson
Produced byTim Van Rellim
Written byPeter Richardson
Pete Richens
StarringNosher Powell
Ronald Allen
Nigel Planer
Miranda Richardson
Production
company
Channel Four Films
Iron Fist Motion Pictures
Michael White Productions
Distributed byCBS/Fox Video Ltd. (UK)
New Line Cinema (US)
Running time
90 min.
LanguageEnglish

The film stars Lanah Pellay, Nosher Powell as the Home Secretary, and a number of cameos, including by: Miranda Richardson and Nigel Planer as vile DHSS clerks, Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall as a union boss, Paul McCartney, Shane MacGowan, Jennifer Saunders, Jimmy Fagg, Kathy Burke, Koo Stark, Dawn French, Bill Wyman, Jools Holland, Hugh Cornwell, Adrian Edmondson, Angela Bowie, and Lemmy.

Plot

Alex is a waiter in high-class London restaurant Bastards, subject to the upper-class customers' daily contempt. He is fired for being rude to the clientele. After witnessing a terrorist act on an embassy, he robs a benefits office and goes on the run with his new friend.

The Home Secretary is a menacing, beer-swilling, fornicating lout with his own way of dealing with trouble, usually with his fists. He is the darling of the voters, the press, and Fiona, a glamorous KGB agent. It was he who ended the terrorist situation earlier. His enemies include the sinister Commander Fortune, who plots a people's revolution with a difference, and General Karprov and Spider, who plot to derail the Home Secretary's campaign to become Prime Minister.

Alex returns to Bastards with a four-person team of anarchists and lays waste to the clientele and staff. He serves them up for consumption by other rich people in their new restaurant, Eat the Rich. When Commander Fortune and Spider realise what's on the menu they formulate a plot to get rid of the conservative Home Secretary for good.

Cast

Reception

The film performed poorly at the box office, taking $200,723 across 4 screens in the USA.[1] Channel 4 were disappointed with the returns on the film and shelved another Richardson project, Five Go To Hell.[2]

Critics were mixed in their opinions on the film. Hal Hinson writing in The Washington Post gave it a lukewarm review, writing "The punk jaggedness they bring to their derivations is the only hint of originality, but this, too, seems a little staid. It feels like punk on the downward swing, after most of its rude energy has dissipated."[3] However Vincent Canby in The New York Times was more favourable and drew comparisons to "an upscale John Waters satire" and "Jean-Luc Godard's pre-Maoist period."[4]

In January 1988 the film was one of those attacked for its critique of Thatcherite society by Oxford University historian Norman Stone, which he condemned in The Sunday Times as being "worthless and insulting" and "riddled with left wing bias".[5]

Eat The Rich featured at #49 in Time Out London's list of "Cinema's 50 greatest flops, follies and failures." [6] The feature stated: "[The film] may not have had the budget to be considered a true flop, but the back-alley production values and total lack of comic invention on display in this Thatcher-baiting misstep meant that any hopes of a Pythonesque run at the movies were knocked way back on their heels."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released on the Filmtrax label, and featured six tracks by Motörhead, including the track Eat the Rich, written especially for the film. The track also appeared on the Motörhead album Rock 'n' Roll, and was released in the UK as a single in its own right. It also featured a solo track, "Bess", by Würzel (Motörhead's second guitarist at the time).

The album also featured several pieces of incidental music from the film, as well as the synthpop track Pistol In My Pocket by Alan Pillay (credited as Lannah).

Track listing
  1. Motörhead – "Eat the Rich"
  2. Simon Brint – "Terrorists"
  3. Motörhead – "Built for Speed"
  4. Danny Eccleston – "Nosher in the Bar"
  5. Motörhead – "Nothing Up My Sleeve"
  6. Simon Brint – "Arriba Salsa"
  7. Motörhead – "Doctor Rock"
  8. Motörhead – "On the Road (Live)"
  9. Lannah – "Pistol in My Pocket"
  10. Simon Brint – "Car Approach"
  11. Motörhead – "Orgasmatron"
  12. Würzel – "Bess"
  13. Danny Eccleston – "End Titles Theme"

Release Notes

The VHS release of the film had a reversible cover.

References
  1. "Eat The Rich". Eat The Rich Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com. inc. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  2. "Five Go To Hell". Film & TV Info > Film & TV Database. BFI. Archived from the original on 20 May 2009. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  3. Hinson, Hal (20 May 1988). "Eat the Rich". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  4. Canby, Vincent (22 April 1988). "Movie Reviews: Eat The Rich (1988)". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  5. Monk, Claire (2002). British historical cinema: the history, heritage and costume film. London: Routledge. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-415-23810-6.
  6. "Cinema's 50 greatest flops, follies and failures: part 1". Time Out London: FIlm. Time Out Group Ltd. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
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