Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5451 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Synopsis
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE is a highly acclaimed and beautifully rendered portrait of two boyhood friends struggling to survive in racially tense Thatcher-era Britain. Omar, a homosexual Pakistani boy living in London with his alcoholic father, lifts a chunk of drug money from another Pakistani and, with his school chum Johnny, decides to renovate a grungy laundrette. Featuring seething dialogue and visually stunning camera work, the film explores the world of modern Pakistanis trapped between two cultures in Thatcher's Britain and their white working class counterparts with no future in their own country.


Directed by renowned English filmmaker Stephen Frears (DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), written by Hanif Kureishi and featuring a star-making performance from a then-virtually unknown Daniel Day-Lewis, MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE stands as one of the best British films of the 1980s.

Customer Reviews

A real classic of British Gay cinema
It was made twenty years ago and a lot has changed but it tackles issues that really are still around - racism and homophobia and sexism. In fact I can't believe it was 20 years ago this was made - it really was groundbreaking - portraying positively a deep gay relationship at a time in the UK which was generally very homophobic in nearly all spheres - even the theatre! Daniel Day-Lewis is terrific in his role and any fan of his later work should really see this. It's a challenging film - life's not a bed of roses after all - but I love it because it is a "love conquers all" film. (And it's really quite funny too!)

A Slice of the '80s Please
It's harder to appreciate this film if you did not grow up in "Thatcher's Britain". If, you did, then this is a vintage helping of politically, racially and sexually charged drama... a classic British kitchen sink drama amidst the soap suds of a South London laundrette. Critics who call it dated are missing the point - of course it's dated! It captured the zeitgeist of the time - race, class and making money. The humour and romance are gentle and never laid on heavily enough to undermine the tension between the main characters. Saeed Jaffrey deserves special mention for his pompous archetypal rapacious '80s entrepreneur, who just occasionally shows his heart. Great.

a bit out-dated but still good as a reminder of a different time
I know it is properly not political correct but I feel that this movie is now out-dated as gay life as moved on and is so much more accepted in society.

My beautiful Laundrette was a great hit in her time, a low budged movie showing the down sides of the Thater period and first showed gay issues, especially in the Asian community. But since 1986 the world has developed, gay issues are hardly any longer sensational and the Thatcher period is over and absorbed in UK reality. So the whole movie is about a time gone and there is not much which you can take on board for our present time.

All in all, the movie is still good, but dated and I felt quite a bit bored by it.