Out of the Darkness, Light (the final 'Mining Review') (1983)

The opening suggests nothing less than a Twilight of the Gods. What follows is the last-ever 'Mining Review' (over 400 were made in total). Narrated by Francis Gysin (long-time head of the National Coal Board Film Unit), it's laced with melancholy, yet utterly free of self-pity. Many virtues of Gysin's unit are aptly present and correct. Points are visually communicated with remarkable economy, sometimes by a single expertly-chosen shot. The enigmatic merry-go-round logic of the coal industry's fluctuations is delineated with a clarity few economists could muster. Attacks on rival industries and capricious governments are joltingly forthright. And the determinedly upbeat diagnosis of the future is loyal indeed, given the NCB's cost-cutting closure of its films department. So 'Mining Review' exited with dignity. And dusk came anyway, anything but gently. The industry's Götterdämmerung descended the following year. (Patrick Russell) All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collect...