By Jay Carr, Globe Staff, 08/27/97

With Ken Loach and Mike Leigh leading the way, Britain is spawning a new film genre -- fired workers fighting back. Most recently, we saw Mark Herman's ``Brassed Off.'' Now, on the eve of Labor Day in this country, we have one of the brightest, sauciest, most expansive-spirited of the lot, Peter Cattaneo's ``The Full Monty.'' It begins on a note of razzing irony, with a moronically upbeat '70s promo touting ``Sheffield -- City on the Move.'' Now, 25 years later, we see that the move has been all downhill. The once-celebrated steel mills are shut, unlikely to reopen. Three unemployed steelworkers come into view, fumblingly attempting to remove what looks like the last remaining girder, only to drop it in a canal.

Thus in one brief bittersweet sequence, we move from steelworkers making steel to steelworkers stealing steel. What's really been stolen, though, are their jobs, their self-respect, their self-images. They're sloshing around, trying not to let defeatism take over, not knowing what to do as they glumly meet at the unemployment office. Robert Carlyle's Gaz is trying not to notice that his young son conceals embarrassment for his father. Tom Wilkinson's Gerard, the unemployed foreman, clings to his middle-class pretensions, lying to his wife, who still believes he's going out the door to work each day. And Mark Addy's hefty Dave has overeaten his way into a state of sexual non-function in bed with his forbearing wife.

Relief comes in the form of a widespread response from the women of Sheffield when a troupe of Chippendale male strippers comes to town for a one-night stand. The idle workers figure they can fight corrosion and make some money stripping, too. And so, in another delicious visual metaphor, they set to work learning to strip in order to regain the dignity that has been stripped from them. Natually, it's slow going at first. But the snooty Gerard brings his ballroom dancing expertise into play and the rudiments of choreography begin to emerge. A few more guys -- one suicidal, the other an anatomical marvel -- join the troupe, and they're headed for the big night.

When they're arrested during a rehearsal, their ardor cools, but as Carlyle's Gaz reminds them, they've said they'd do it, so they can't back out now. Gaz and Gerald are the twin catalysts of this perfectly accented film, awash in local color. As the aimless, drifty Gaz, Carlyle is at the other extreme from the role for which American audiences know him -- the psychotic, explosive Begbie in ``Trainspotting.'' Wiry and wired, he's also sensitive and submerged. Still, it's he who leads the troupe as they peel down completely (the meaning of the film's title) before a cheering audience of women applauding their pluck more than their talents as they desperately attempt to turn their lives around with their strip-tease act.

Although the women's roles aren't as well developed as the men's, their directness is refreshing. ``The Full Monty'' avoids the question of where the guys are going once past opening night by making their big strip act a one-time gesture of defiance and a morale-builder. It pushes off from Gaz's 11-year-old son standing in the wings, nudging his dad onstage in the manner of Warner Baxter shoving Ruby Keeler into stardom in ``42nd Street,'' saying, ``Now get out there and do your stuff.'' Not the least of the surprising joys of ``The Full Monty'' is William Snape downplaying the fact that he's more mature and competent than his father. He's a winningly compassionate kid and ``The Full Monty'' is a winningly compassionate film.