Cinema: Scruffy Vigor

BRONCO BULLFROG

Directed by BARNEY PLATTS-MILLS Screenplay by BARNEY PLATTS-MILLS

Since there has not been an example of the English realistic cinema in some time, Bronco Bullfrog comes to the U.S. as something of a novelty, and rather a welcome one. Crude and defiant, the film is full of such angry energy that its shortcomings can be, if not dismissed, at least indulged.

The factory smokestacks begriming the sky in the opening scene are in Stratford, a section of London's East End where jobs and hope are in short supply. There Del (Del Walker), a 17-year-old welder's apprentice, picks up money on the side through petty thievery with his pal Roy (Roy Hay wood). The lads meet up with another mate nicknamed Bronco Bullfrog, whose recent stretch in reform school has given him some profitable connections. Bronco (Sam Shepherd) cuts the boys in on a job robbing a freight car.

Bored, frustrated, trapped, Del really wants a chance to get away and spend a little time alone with his girl Irene (Anne Gooding). Writer-Director Platts-Mills is especially good at suggesting the pervasive feeling of desperation, and the sense of privacy as an inaccessible, impossible luxury. When Del and Irene do manage finally to pass a night together it is in Bronco's flat, where cartons of stolen merchandise are stacked against the wall and Bronco sprawls at the foot of the bed, restlessly sleeping off a drunk.

This is Platts-Mills' first feature, and even by the lenient standard adopted for new work, Bronco Bullfrog is rough around the edges. Subtitles are required, not only because the East End accent and slang are often unintelligible (even to Londoners) but because the sound recording is atrocious.

Some of the supporting players steal nervous glances into the camera, and the scenes of violence are handled with a singular awkwardness, as if the participants were afraid to do one another any real harm. The performances of Walker and Gooding, however, have a kind of scruffy street authenticity. Despite abundant flaws, there is hardly a moment in Bronco Bullfrog that does not display a vigorous, very real talent.