‘Blue Jean’ is a drama set in Northern England during 1988, focusing on Section 28, - legislation that banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities in England and Wales. At the center of the film is Jean, a closeted P.E. teacher who faces difficulties when one of her students threatens to uncover her lifestyle.
The film follows Jean as she leads a double life, separating her professional and private lives entirely. On receiving a new student to her class, Lois, Jean chances upon her at a gay bar one night. Without exchanging pleasantries, Jean pretends it never happened and never mentions it to Lois at school.
As Lois becomes more comfortable with herself, she spends more time at the gay bar, playing pool with Jean’s friends. Feeling threatened, Jean tells Lois to leave, inadvertently making it appear as if Jean and Lois are involved, pushing away Jean’s girlfriend Viv.
At the same time Jean visits with her sister and her family, notably acting distant when her past is brought up, with Jean’s sister expressing disdain for her way of life.
One day after practice, Lois is approached in the gym shower by another student, Siobhan who starts kissing her. Jean sees this and tries to back out of the locker-room, when Siobhan breaks down and other girls rush the changing room.
Siobhan then accuses Lois of attacking her. During an official inquiry, Jean says she didn’t see anything, resulting in Lois’s suspension from school.
Unable to reconcile her fear of being outed and possibly fired with having betrayed Lois, Jean tries to approach her to make amends. Jean takes Lois to a shared living space where a group of queer people have gathered to celebrate a birthday. There Jean introduces Lois to other gay women and she learns of the ‘Bog Fund’ and how women like Jean contribute to gay women in need, with the ‘Bog Fund’ serving as an emergency helpline to those in need. Thereafter Lois reconciles with Viv and the film closes on her rejoining the group.
Whilst informative to those who may not have been aware of the legislative restrictions on the queer community in the UK during the late 80’s and 90’s, ‘Blue Jean’ serves as a singular insight, highlighting the impact that a gay teacher may have experienced during that time. With the law prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality, the film highlights the difficult position that it may have placed a large part of the community in at the time.
The essence of the film lies with its main character and her struggle to live her life to the fullest. As Jean is a good P.E. teacher who loves her job, she is unable to fully liver her life, in fear of being discovered and having to hide her true personality. The proposed Section 28 restrictions on local authorities only exacerbates Jeans anxieties about who she is, placing greater pressure on her not to unintentionally reveal her way of life. The subsequent impact on Jean’s relationship with Viv goes to show that even though a relationship may be hard to maintain in general, governmental policy changes had indirectly caused friction and disturbed individual’s private lives.
The film goes a step beyond and invites the viewers to consider the change in law as affecting multiple generations, with Jean having been stifled and failed by her peers, and her subsequently passing this on to Lois. By failing to back her up, Jean represents the actions borne of fear and resentment, which she has to redress by seeking resolve within herself and with Lois.
The film evokes the repressed atmosphere under which Jean, Lois and the other gay women had to live. Jean, as portrayed by Rose McEwan, creates a relatable image of someone who cannot fully be themselves. Only as she spends her free time at the gay bar does McEwan’s Jean seem to come alive, always only appearing to be a partial form of herself when around her family or colleagues. McEwan’s Jean is not solely a damsel living through an oppressive time, - Jean’s journey takes her from a closeted and slighted lesbian to someone who is able to embrace her own persona and begins to understand the weight and impact of her actions towards the next generation of girls like her.
An insightful and remarkable portrayal of an oppressive time not so long ago, ‘Blue Jean’ offers a unique and penetrative look back at the time where homosexuality had been stifled though legislative measures, providing for a revealing and exceptionally insightful look at how governmental policies have had a very real negative impact on peoples private lives, probing into personal dealings and possibly even causing for further harm and resentment passed down to future generations.
Score: 4/4
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