I, Daniel Blake

I, Daniel Blake, 2016, 4 ¼ stars

I’m Daniel Blake

Economic slavery demands new Spartacus

Exclusive to MeierMovies, August 11, 2025

“I’m Spartacus.”

Those words, spoken in 71 B.C. (as depicted in the 1960 film by Stanley Kubrick), were apropos for their time, when vast swaths of humanity lived in slavery.

Fast-forward 2,100 years to a different enslavement, one that imprisons normal people in a modern hell of broken technology, uncaring bureaucracy, underemployment and unbalanced economics. This 21st-century servitude requires a different mantra, and legendary British director Ken Loach answered the call in his 2016 social drama: “I, Daniel Blake.”

Written by frequent Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, the film focuses on the working-class struggles of its title character, portrayed remarkably by Dave Johns. Doctors have told recent widower Daniel that he is unable to work following a heart attack. But the government disagrees, forcing Daniel to appeal. While waiting for a verdict, he is required to look for employment. However, when he gets a job offer, he must reject it because of his health. He is, therefore, stuck in arguably the scariest cinematic loop since 1945’s Dead of Night.

Worse still, Daniel is computer illiterate and unable to jump through the numerous technological hoops his circus of a government has placed in his way. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley didn’t quite imagine the 21st century this way, but they probably wouldn’t be surprised.

While on his dystopian odyssey, Daniel meets and befriends Katie (Hayley Squires), who is fighting her own battles. They have seemingly nothing but everything in common – different genders, different ages, different predicaments and even different dialects. (Cockney Katie is newly arrived from London while Daniel speaks in thick Geordie.) Yet they find unlikely friendship in Newcastle, a microcosm of modern Britain.

It’s no surprise Loach made a film that delivers such an emotional yet truthful pummeling. After all, he’s been neglecting to pull his punches since the late 1960s, when his breakthrough films, Poor Cow and Kes, became hallmarks of the British kitchen-sink drama genre. And with I, Daniel Blake, he’s at it again, practically forcing you to lean into the punch, happy to take the blow. And for delivering this beating, the film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and best British film at the BAFTAs, and became Loach’s highest-grossing movie.

Daniel deserved more respect than what he got. Spoiler alert: He shouldn’t have died on the dirty floor of a government building’s bathroom, waiting for help that never came. For Daniel, life was unfair and cruel. We are all Daniel Blake.

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For more information about the film, visit IMDB and Wikipedia.