Gregory's Girl (1981): ICT Entertainment
Early on in Bill Forsyth’s second and most beloved feature film Gregory’s Girl, Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) shrugs off the football coach’s trepidations about the team’s losses, telling him ‘football is all about entertainment. We give them a good laugh. It’s only a game”. Gregory’s care-free demeanour and charming lack of masculinity is like a tonic. His attitude towards football epitomises the entire tone of the film which by virtue of not taking itself too seriously, is incredibly entertaining, even forty years later.
Gregory’s Girl is a familiar favourite to Scottish audiences. For me, it is one of those films that has just always been around. I can’t pinpoint the first time I saw it, but I know I have seen it countless times. For those of you who are less familiar with the film, Gregory’s Girl is a coming-of-age film set in the new town build of Cumbernauld where the Scottish teen Gregory grapples clumsily with his first love for Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), a slick football player who makes her way into the school’s team. Forsyth shot the film on location, using Abronhill High School as a backdrop for the humorous and humble actions of the adolescents, and recruited most of the cast from the local Glasgow Youth Theatre, some of whom had already worked on his debut, That Sinking Feeling (1979).
The film is brimming with all the best tropes of the teen film; awkward crushes, school sports, and sketchy haircuts. But unlike the American teen film which boomed in the 80s, Gregory’s Girl (with a micro-budget of £200,000) settles for charming rather than glossy. Where other teen films typically infused the latest pop music and fashions into the film, Colin Tully’s melodic score and the cast’s often self-fashioned attire give the film a more timeless rather than nostalgic quality.
Gregory’s Girl curiously predates the 90s and noughties trend of teen films inspired by classical literature such as Clueless (Emma), 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew) and She’s the Man (Twelfth Night). Mirroring the very play that they are reading in class, with mixed up romances and the hint of “something in the air tonight […] something in the atmosphere” as Andy philosophically chirps to his mate Charlie, Gregory’s Girl loosely follows in the footsteps of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Gregory’s Girl: ITC Entertainment
One of the most striking elements of the film is that it isn’t radical or showy about its progressive gender politics. Where later films, such as Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and the aforementioned She’s the Man (2006) centre the stigma around women playing football, in Gregory’s Girl, it doesn’t take Dorothy long to convince the coach that she is a better player than the boys. Becoming an advocate for Dorothy to be on the team, the coach approaches the headmaster. When the headmaster asks, “what will happen about the showers?” the coach, avoiding any confrontation on the matter, responds “oh, she’ll bring her own soap!”. That’s it settled; Dorothy is on the team. When Andy (Robert Buchanan) is miffed that a girl has replaced him on the football team, Gregory responds with a simple reassurance; “modern girls, modern boys, it’s tremendous!”.
The concoction of lessened deadpan and screwball humour is what makes the film so watchable today. During such a chaotic time, Gregory’s c’est la vie attitude, which at times comes across as rather profound, is like a comfort blanket. It is a film that survives the ubiquitous misogyny problem of many classic teen films from the decade and one that can certainly be returned to again and again.
Gregory’s Girl is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer until the 4th May.
Words by Rosie Beattie.