In the early 1990s when Britain forsook from Thatcherism to enter a new world of politics, Mike Leigh captured the angst and frustration of the people (predominantly the working class) with his film “Naked.” A bleak tale of alienation, misogyny, and depression, Leigh captured the deep-rooted ‘naked’ world often foreshadowed by the false elegance projected to us. Despite almost three decades from its release, it is inarguably a relevant masterpiece for recent times.
As a deeply intelligent social drama, “Naked” contextualizes the state of society in post-Thatcher Britain. To capture that, Leigh resigned himself from the clean and sanitized places only to dig deeper to address the moral bankruptcy from the bleakest of areas. He takes us out to a disturbing yet exhilarating odyssey through this bleakness with the protagonist Johnny, an unemployed intellectual, whose nocturnal journey of interactions and sharing of nihilistic conspiracy theories with strangers on the dark streets of London gives us a new perspective about the societal condition.
Being afraid of a beating, Johnny, who rapes a woman in Manchester flees in a hurry to London, visiting the house of an old girlfriend, Louise. There he meets Louise’s friend cum flatmate, Sophie. Though initially he seduces Sophie, soon he resents her; he assaults her physically, and leaves her in a broken state.
He roams the streets of London, meets various people, and through him, we see the ‘naked’ life far beyond the neon lights of a civilized world. It is the hell we often avoid or are afraid to cross. But an enigmatic man like Johnny roams these areas without any purpose, stumbling upon people to people by time to time. From the first frame of the film, we know he is an unstable, loathsome, and self-destructive character suffering from his inner demons. He is unemployed but well-educated. As he has nothing to do, he has plenty of time to think. This roaming through this hell is to find people as his prey to manipulate and to blast his thinking onto them. And this blast is a kind of intellectual bully or sadism similar to his mistreat of women.
He chooses people who are emotionally vulnerable, broken, frustrated, or alienated from the world. They are also unhappy and have lived a life of exile; their thoughts can be intruded on by Johnny’s murky conspiracy theories. Nonetheless, it is Johnny’s charisma that lures people, no matter how disgusting he is. That makes this character so enigmatic. On one hand, he is a loathsome creep and on the other, he has an intellectual manipulative charisma to admire. If I borrow Friedrich Nietzsche’s words, he is none other than a ‘Priest’—a self-proclaimed hero who suffers so much so that he wants to make others suffer. Nonetheless, simply he is a representation of the devil preaching his ideology of anarchy through his somewhat biblical sermons to the people.
Similar to Johnny, there is the character of Jeremy aka Sebastian. Like Johnny, he is charismatic as well as a misogynist. Though we see this character in bits and pieces, it’s clear he is nothing but the alter ego of Johnny. The only difference between them is the class. Jeremy is rich, has a nice Porsche and a luxurious apartment whereas Johnny is homeless and unemployed. This contrast between two quite similar characters shows how the society is divided between different classes whereas the overall psyche of people who belong to them is quite the same.
One of the most controversial aspects of the film is the portrayal of the woman characters in the movie. At the time of its release, Suzanne Moore in The Guardian criticized the lethargic females whose lives Johnny routinely ruins stating, “What sort of realism is this? To show a misogynist and surround him with such walking doormats has the effect, intentional or not, of justifying this behavior.”
However, this is not the case here. It is not a misogynistic movie; rather it is a movie about a person, who is a misogynist. The film has strong female characters and they can’t be considered walking doormats. If there is a misogynist Johnny, there is the strong-willed Louise, who exhibits both patience and tenderness dealing with Johnny, whereas she finally pulls a knife on Jeremy. Also, Sophie is in my opinion is the representation of the violent, misogynist society we live in altogether. She is the sufferer but it is difficult for her to escape from this suffering. Though in the end, she resigned from everything and goes into oblivion, her characterization is somewhat haunting from the core.
To the alleging of this film being misogynistic, it is an incorrect of the film altogether. I think to call it a political statement is much more appropriate in this case. It talks about the damages within the people from the Thatcherite depression. Homelessness, unemployment, and broad class division are indicative of that. And this angst, alienation, and self-loathing depicted through Johnny’s character are just the outcome of it.
As Johnny, David Thewlis is just flawless. It is a hard job to portray this kind of flawed character; he never seems unconvincing and plays every scene with mature precision. Lesley Sharp is also a great addition to Johnny’s opposite as a strong-willed Louise, who is like an antidote for the venomous anarchy of Johnny.
Katrin Cartlidge as Sophie is the hardest character for me to watch in the entire movie. I sympathize with the character and felt she is the unsung heroine of this movie. She is beaten, raped, and mistreated, but she never gives up on her situation. She always fights back and stands still after every beating on her. This can be considered as the apt situation women face every day in this misogynist world, yet they have to fight on their own accounts. In the end, when she resigns from everyone with disappointment, it will break your heart.
Greg Cruttwell as the mysterious Jeremy is another addition to this stellar group of actors. Where I found character quite interesting as well as unnerving, I want it more to be fleshed out. This is the only complaint I have for Leigh in his exhilarating piece of work.
With Dick Pope’s monochromatic cinematography through the dark alleyways or the claustrophobic setups and Andrew Dickson’s haunting score, “Naked”becomes a slice of life in the post-Thatcher Britain in an unfiltered manner. And Leigh’s philosophical take on the subject matter makes you an offer you can’t refuse; it’s still powerful, even after three decades of its release.
“Naked” is available to stream on The Criterion Channel.
