This is the 100th review I've done. If you've stuck around and read a few of these then... thanks, I suppose. This is an extra special one. I can't do this film justice. It is an overwhelmingly potent work of art. It was directed by the brilliant Ben Wheatley on the shoestring budget of £300000, and was the first movie to ever be released simultaneously in the cinema, on TV, online, and on DVD.
I'm going to go into detail here, as I think this is a seriously under appreciated movie, and there are few comprehensive reviews out there.
I'm going to go into detail here, as I think this is a seriously under appreciated movie, and there are few comprehensive reviews out there.
On a basic level it is the story of several deserters from a battlefield in England during the civil war. Detailed spoilers follow. Whitehead is the servant of a wealthy alchemist, and he has been tasked with serving Commander Trower as he fights in the civil war and simultaneously attempts to track down O'Neill, who was once a trusted associate but has recently stolen a large amount of the master's literary work. Whitehead openly admits to being a coward, and he is first shown hiding from battle and escaping Trower through a hedge row. The enraged Trower is following him, only to be run through from behind and then shot by Jacob, another deserter, who then stumbles away after a proximate cannon blast and rests on the seemingly dead body of Friend.
When Friend wakes up, the three are met by Cutler, apparently a fourth deserter, who tells them of a pub somewhere over the rise. Cutler then drugs Friend and Jacob with mushrooms, while Whitehead refuses to eat. Reality begins to degrade as the three are forced by Cutler to pull on a rope, freeing O'Neill, who Cutler has been working for. O'Neill uses his stolen work and Whitehead as a sort of divining rod to find the location of buried treasure.
Jacob and Friend are forced to dig, but start fighting one another, and Cutler laughs at them and urinates on them, before shooting Friend. Cutler is then told to dig by O'Neill, while Whitehead and Jacob escape. O'Neill finds the two men gone, and berates Cutler, revealing to him that there never was a pub over the rise. O'Neill sets off across the field to find Jacob and Whitehead, while Cutler hysterically continues to dig. To his horror, Cutler finds nothing but a skull, and scrambles out of the pit and shoots at it.
When Cutler confronts O'Neil he is shot to death, as Whitehead attempts to eat all the mushrooms and break the curse on them all. Jacob then takes Cutler's gun from his corpse, and him and Whitehead run back to the camp where they find Friend, alive, who mistakenly alerts O'Neill to their position. O'Neill shoots Jacob in the gun, but as he returns fire he ruins O'Neill's leg. Friend charges O'Neill with a pike and is shot by his second gun. Whitehead finally kills O'Neill, dons his hat and cape, gathers his master's literary work, and makes his way back through the hedge row.
The plot could have been set at any time. Though the costuming and speech patterns are accurate, few characters are in the movie and it could really have been any war going on in the background. This is part of the point, as the film is about human nature rather than a historical drama.
Some of the best shots have the actors posed as if for a painting of the scene, but a still is not used so that you can see their hair blowing in the breeze and them trembling as they try to keep still. these are not supermen in a painting, they are real people who are struggling through life. For such an abstract movie, there is a great deal of realism.
Everyone is so dirty and unhealthy. Jacob is a good example of this. He is very much a normal human, but of the three protagonists he is the best hardened for war. Yet while he is the most physically able, and the most violent, he is quite insecure at heart. As well as this, he is representative of just about every illness that was common at the time (the shitting scene isn't much fun to watch, and the medical inspection had some unexpected nudity).
The black and white works perfectly, and the sound creates an undertone of writhing menace, churning faster as the film descends in abstraction and flitting in and out as does Whitehead's certainty.
The black circle is good image to sum up this movie. It is both a scrying mirror, and so a representative of the pervasive ignorance at the time, and a mirrored sun in negative. The sun is the centre of our solar system, and the black void is the centre of the universe of 'A Field in England'. Instead of everything revolving around light - knowledge, goodness - it revolves around darkness, ignorance, satanism and evil. There is no solid core or foundation to feel safe on here, all is chaos.
Cause and effect are an illusion that humans force onto random occurrences for which there is no explanation. The film doesn't bother showing you how something has happened, only the effect. How does the rope work? we don't know, but it frees O'Neill. What happens to Whitehead in the tent? We don't know, but he's screaming in there, and when he comes out he's smiling. It's one of the creepiest scenes I've ever seen in a movie, the way he staggers like a damaged puppet, staggering ahead of O'Neill as a nursery rhyme plays. Is the world falling apart because of the mushrooms? Possibly, but then what is happening in "reality"? It could be magic, which is as real to these people as science. In fact the two are interchangeable, and O'Neill is known to be a man of chemistry.
The point the film is making is that our nature to reason everything into neatness is absurd, that these men will kill each other over such worthless things as gold or land. They trick themselves into believing in reason and purpose, when they live in a black reasonless void that the mirror can reflect.
The final blow is that there is no treasure, that Cutler finds nothing more than a skull to remind him of his own mortality. He has put his trust in the devil but whoever you place your trust in, all that will happen is death. He wants treasure, but it doesn't matter if he finds it or not, because riches aren't treasure, and he will die. Maybe he thinks that he'll go to hell because of O'Neill, maybe O'Neill thinks the same thing, or maybe they all think that they'll go to heaven. Maybe they think that nothing will happen, and that they will just float around for ever. None of it matters though, because they'll be dead. All the pain and manipulation that O'Neill and Cutler put the others through is for naught in the end, as they are rewarded with a skull: a grinning memento mori that mocks their pitiful treasure hunt.
I've heard several say that this movie is almost indescribably original in style. It shows us the basic chaos of lives that end inevitably in death without treating us to any ways to keep going, or reminding us of any of the good points of that whole "being alive" thing.
I know it's in black and white but it works, and I know there are a lot of trippy strobe sequences, but they work too. Probably not for everyone, but it's right in my movie Goldilocks zone. It's difficult to pick out exactly what I love so much about this film. I think it's a mixture of it's themes, style, and the spirit in which it was made. Possibly my favourite movie of all time.
The plot could have been set at any time. Though the costuming and speech patterns are accurate, few characters are in the movie and it could really have been any war going on in the background. This is part of the point, as the film is about human nature rather than a historical drama.
Some of the best shots have the actors posed as if for a painting of the scene, but a still is not used so that you can see their hair blowing in the breeze and them trembling as they try to keep still. these are not supermen in a painting, they are real people who are struggling through life. For such an abstract movie, there is a great deal of realism.
Everyone is so dirty and unhealthy. Jacob is a good example of this. He is very much a normal human, but of the three protagonists he is the best hardened for war. Yet while he is the most physically able, and the most violent, he is quite insecure at heart. As well as this, he is representative of just about every illness that was common at the time (the shitting scene isn't much fun to watch, and the medical inspection had some unexpected nudity).
The black and white works perfectly, and the sound creates an undertone of writhing menace, churning faster as the film descends in abstraction and flitting in and out as does Whitehead's certainty.
The black circle is good image to sum up this movie. It is both a scrying mirror, and so a representative of the pervasive ignorance at the time, and a mirrored sun in negative. The sun is the centre of our solar system, and the black void is the centre of the universe of 'A Field in England'. Instead of everything revolving around light - knowledge, goodness - it revolves around darkness, ignorance, satanism and evil. There is no solid core or foundation to feel safe on here, all is chaos.
Cause and effect are an illusion that humans force onto random occurrences for which there is no explanation. The film doesn't bother showing you how something has happened, only the effect. How does the rope work? we don't know, but it frees O'Neill. What happens to Whitehead in the tent? We don't know, but he's screaming in there, and when he comes out he's smiling. It's one of the creepiest scenes I've ever seen in a movie, the way he staggers like a damaged puppet, staggering ahead of O'Neill as a nursery rhyme plays. Is the world falling apart because of the mushrooms? Possibly, but then what is happening in "reality"? It could be magic, which is as real to these people as science. In fact the two are interchangeable, and O'Neill is known to be a man of chemistry.
The point the film is making is that our nature to reason everything into neatness is absurd, that these men will kill each other over such worthless things as gold or land. They trick themselves into believing in reason and purpose, when they live in a black reasonless void that the mirror can reflect.
The final blow is that there is no treasure, that Cutler finds nothing more than a skull to remind him of his own mortality. He has put his trust in the devil but whoever you place your trust in, all that will happen is death. He wants treasure, but it doesn't matter if he finds it or not, because riches aren't treasure, and he will die. Maybe he thinks that he'll go to hell because of O'Neill, maybe O'Neill thinks the same thing, or maybe they all think that they'll go to heaven. Maybe they think that nothing will happen, and that they will just float around for ever. None of it matters though, because they'll be dead. All the pain and manipulation that O'Neill and Cutler put the others through is for naught in the end, as they are rewarded with a skull: a grinning memento mori that mocks their pitiful treasure hunt.
I've heard several say that this movie is almost indescribably original in style. It shows us the basic chaos of lives that end inevitably in death without treating us to any ways to keep going, or reminding us of any of the good points of that whole "being alive" thing.
I know it's in black and white but it works, and I know there are a lot of trippy strobe sequences, but they work too. Probably not for everyone, but it's right in my movie Goldilocks zone. It's difficult to pick out exactly what I love so much about this film. I think it's a mixture of it's themes, style, and the spirit in which it was made. Possibly my favourite movie of all time.
A Field in England: 96.8