Christopher Ian Smith’s arresting documentary charts the development of the Essex town – and where its salvation liesHere is an absorbing and heartening documentary portrait of Basildon in Essex, conceived as a super-modern utopian development for the forelock-tugging working classes after the second world war.The film periodically has Jim Broadbent reading the sonorous words of Clement Attlee’s planning minister Lewis Silkin on the subject of how wonderful it’s going to be.
And the odd thing is that Christopher Ian Smith’s film doesn’t fall into the trap of simply making it look horrible.
With interestingly composed shots of various parts of Basildon – importantly just the architecture and landscaping without any of the people that could make it look untidy – it does look good, or at least interesting.
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