a complex economic story for the viewer with a critical eye. The end of the story, insofar
as we can see from the movie, may appear utterly ridiculous at first glance. A group of
regular guys stripping naked and dancing seductively in front of their wives and fellow
townspeople is shocking. But these guys reached this point as a result of a variety of
circumstances that deserve some examination. In this paper, I will consider four distinct
economic phases which I believe are relevant to the characters’ lives. No particular
economic theory is sufficient to explain what happened in Sheffield, England in reality or
within the film. I will utilize various economic concepts and draw from renowned
economic thinkers to present “The Full Monty”’s economic story. First, however, it is
necessary to give a little background regarding the steel industry in northern England and
the changes that occurred there by the time of the film.
The city of Sheffield is located in South Yorkshire, England where the effects of
the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century were extremely significant. In 1856,
Henry Bessemer developed a technique in Sheffield which allowed for the mass
production of steel (Investinsheffield). This development essentially made Sheffield king
of the steel world. Its products, which included stainless steel cutlery and railroad tracks,
were shipped around Europe and across the Atlantic to America. Though both the United
States and Germany had overtaken Britain in terms of steel output by 1890, Sheffield’s
dominance in the industry continued through the middle of the twentieth century.
Through two world wars, Sheffield provided arms for Britain. By the 1960s, however,
companies such as the British Steel Corporation faced problems of outdated technology,
poor assets, high coal and oil costs, and increasing competition from the world market.
The steel industry in England was re-privatized in the 1980s, and the steel work force was
drastically cut (Citizendium). Sheffield was hit particularly hard, and the city became a
symbol for unemployment and urban blight by the 1990s. This is the context in which
“The Full Monty” is situated.
When the movie begins, the viewer is shown a 1972 video proclaiming Sheffield
as “the beating heart of Britain’s industrial north.” The economic prosperity displayed
was, in reality, already being undermined by the downfall of the steel industry twentyfive
years before the film. By 1997, Sheffield had certainly moved beyond the first
economic phase that I believe is relevant to the film. This phase was a time of productive
laborers. Karl Marx’s Capital provides the best insight into the economic conditions of
the first phase, and it is crucial to understand the phase which provides the background
and gives rise to the events of the film.
Four of the six men who make up the ‘Hot Metal’ strip act were steel workers.
They were once able to find a consumer for their physical labor. This consumer was the
owner of the steel factory. We are never introduced to the owner in the film, but we
assume that because Sheffield was a thriving center of the steel trade, a man’s laborpower
could be sold readily as a commodity on the market. These transactions can be
classified as the sale and purchase of labor-power. For Marx, labor-power was “the
aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in the physical form, the
living personality, of a human being, capabilities which he sets in motion whenever he
produces a use-value of any kind” (Marx 270). A person’s use-value, like any other usevalue,
can only be realized in consumption. Therefore, a person with labor-power will
protect his ownership of this labor-power and search for the right situation in which he
can convert himself into a commodity.
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