This film is, quite simply, a masterpiece. A real sense of war & how personalities can develop over time. Reece Shearsmith is, truly, a sensational actor. The look on his face as he staggers out of the tent was absolutely terrifying. The scene chilled me to the bone. He was able to portray abject horror with no dialogue. Genius.......
Although this film will tell you nothing about the ECW, excellent film though. You're correct not too many films about the ECW, "Cromwell" is pure nonsense apart from Alec Guiness acting. Try Winstanley a film about the Diggers.
So how did that go for ya?? Haha! Jk jk i know this is an old post but i just gotta check in on this film every now and then and for as far out as it is they did an amazing job with everything.
Fluffykeith, agree completely. It's seeing someone who's so obviously broken and only knowing what went o the tent by the screams. This film truly is a masterpiece.
The look on Shearsmith's face as he staggers out of the tent was absolutely terrifying. He truly is a sensational actor- able to portray abject horror with no dialogue. Genius.......
A friend and I were so excited about this release. We went to the pub, had some drinks and a little smoke, then went to his house to watch this masterpiece. It was a big event. We thought the silent prologue was quite artsy. After a few minutes we decided the silent film was cinematic effect and the sound would probably erupt upon some cannon fire to really kick us in to the midst of battle. After about 40 minutes we discovered the sound on the telly was broken. It was ruined by that point so we stopped watching. I still haven't seen it :(
Wanna watch it bro. Be honest with you I had the same preparation but just the smoke this time and after a few I watched it and it’s great but the scene with the tent and whitehead leaving while high is genuinely horrifying. I skipped the last 15 seconds of that scene as I don’t scare easily but that was something else. So maybe some advice there
I'm genuinely surprised by the negativity and snootiness on display in abundance here. I agree this isn't the easiest film to watch, it requires some active intellectual participation and effort on the viewers part. Yet despite some of the comments below I didn't find any element of this film boring or pretentious. The lengthier and more surreal scenes work because they function as stand alone images that fit within the framework of an ambiguous plot. I thought it was marvellous!
The plot is pretty straightforward. Whitehead, Cutler, Jacob and Friend are all dead and are making their way to an Ale house (Heaven) through a field in England (Purgatory), however, on the way they encounter O'Neil (Satan), who forces them to dig a pit (Grave/Hell/Eternal Death). O'Neil is finally defeated, but the four heroes are still full of sin, and so have to start their journey again from the beginning.
yes, I'd thought of the purgatory idea too. But it's also a very rich allegory of England and the changes it underwent during the Cromwellian period. All sorts of struggles for primacy: a Mexican stand-off between Superstition, Religion and Science; the transition from tyrannical to democratic monarchy; altruism over egotism. BTW only Whitehead, Friend and Jacob return back through the hedge.
i rewatched this after your reference to it in another review. funny how much of it is devoted to the thought of simultaneous delivery of film to all platforms simultaneously in the future, and here we are in 2021 and have seen we can skip the flagship delivery mechanism of cinemas. obviously, the cinema experience is not akin to watching a movie on a mobile phone, the rich experience suspension of disbelief suffers, yet it can be done.
The Director Ben Wheatley has said, "there are other narratives that sit within it. There's the basic get out of going 'Oh, he's just on drugs,' which I don't sign up for, but it's there. I think it's... is he fragments of the same man, or are they in the circles of hell, or are they in Pergatory, and learning more things about each other each time they go through the hedge."
Watched it last night. Exceptionally confusing, but beautiful and well-acted. Very enjoyable, but you've got to prepare yourself; you have to give it your full attention otherwise you will be left miles back down the road. At times it felt as though it was being deliberately confusing; an exercise in directorial ego-groping rather than something that serves an actual purpose... but still. It's a breath of fresh air. And the slow-mo shot Mark is describing is creepy as hell.
a truly excellent film. Wheatley really is in a league of his currently. Every feature he's done thus far has been so quintessentially British and no two are the same. Shearsmith is fabulous here. Monty Python meets David Lynch.
It’s taken me far too long to get round to watching A Field in England. It has all the ingredients that tick my boxes. I love art horror mystery etc films. This, however, just failed for me and I’m genuinely baffled by the accolades it receives. Definitely the emperor’s new field in England. It’s a simplistic, rambling, incoherent form over function A level project.
Whoa, I've been listening to Kermode for years and I think that's the first time I've ever heard him say his wife's name on air. I feel like he makes a concerted effort to keep his family out of the spotlight so I'm surprised to hear him slip up like that.
There should be more films not just about the English Civil Wars but the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms - Cromwell -To Kill a King - A Field in England these are the only ones I can think of
Last night was an A-1, tip top clubbing jam fair. It was a sandwich of fun on ecstacy bread, wrapped up in a big bag like disco fudge. It doesn't get much better than that, I just wish sometimes I could control these FOCKING MOOD SWINGS!
Why are people so resistant to the Avant Garde? I understand if you just don't get it but why insist a film is bad because you didn't get it. Not all film is made purely to entertain or make money, this may upset you but some of us like something a bit more stimulating than straightforward exposition, explosions and endless regurgitated plots.
I have to say I'm surprised by the negative response here. I wouldn't say the film was brilliant as such, but nor would I say that it was boring or pretentious. The ideas behind it are interesting and since I watched this last week I haven't stopped thinking about it. The dreamlike atmosphere is gripping, frightening and beautiful. In regards to the distribution model - I just wish I had seen it on telly earlier so I could have nipped down to the cinema the following evening to watch it again.
I just watched it on film4, I have to say, I wasn’t overly impressed. I felt it was building up to something, but it didn’t quite deliver. Interesting but no more than that. I’m going to stick on Night of the Demon and finish my cans.
sorry friend, but you are mistaken...it is a gnostic journey to "the other world" via a hallucinatory experience- a combination of mushroom trip and "operative fasting".
It's been weeks since I watched this. The events in my own life since I watched this have changed my original horrified perspective. I was sickened by the tent scene, but having been through shocking experience myself this past week. I believe he comes from the tent enlightened. Crosses over. Quite a different fellow. Hard to explain but sometimes enlightenment is painful.
I think this could have been a truly great film had the director not made several odd and silly choices throughout-- thinking specifically of the campy sound effects and occasionally self-aware dialogue. The casting was superb and there were several points where it was genuinely strange, evocative, terrifying... I feel like it's a film with excellent pieces that fail to cohere at the last minute.
Winstanley, the Wrath of Shrooms. I agree about the 'coming out of the tent' scene, but the subsequent events aren't as creepy, especially given the out-of-place, Blackadderish dialogue exchange towards the end ('... catchy!'). This isn't as effective as the recent American indie Yellowbrickroad, which, although flawed, tries to sustain a malevolence that AFIE fudges.
its an excellent film.....what else you going to watch? the usual spoon fed CGI crap?...yeah it makes you think and is disturbing in places....but if you want to watch a film that makes you think after....this is for you....if you just want a "maccy D" type fix....then go watch superman.
I was not to enamoured with A Field in England. There are viewers here defining it as "stimulating" and "excellent", which I find interesting. The film for me became a showcase of cinematic technique, pulling me away from the film in a Brechtian awareness of the production, which ruined the film. It often felt like traditional screenplay dialogue was being pulled into the Avant Garde by the direction. It just didn't work for me. Some great technique & ideas, but not enough to be AvantG.
I've just made a similar comment. Same sort of crowd who complain that their tax money goes towards the arts. Their is precious little Avant Garde cinema as it is, but they would even deprive us of that if they had their way.
It might have been great or it might have been emperors new clothes.....all I know is I didn't appreciate it, it didn't hold my attention after the first 10 minutes and I couldn't wait for it to be over......having said that when it comes around again I'll give it a second chance.
I tried watching but after fifteen minutes was confused and bored, nothing seemed to be happening and never really cared what the ending was. Chances are its a really good piece of Cinema but its wasted on proles like me.
Callum Sutherland I didn’t. However, there isn’t one second that has passed since that I don’t overwhelmingly wish I had. I would honestly consider having Jeffrey Dahmer inject acid into my brain if it meant I could erase the memories of this supernaturally execrable exercise in art house self congratulation.
Come on. You may not have appreciated it or understood it, but dull?! I can think of many, many arty films that could describe, but A Field in England is shot through with tension, subtly shifting dynamics and, for an arthouse film, a fairly rapid and breathless plot; I'm not sure where you're getting 'self-congratulatory' from either, as the understatedness of the film is probably half of the dullness you're complaining at.
Callum Sutherland that old chestnut was that I didn’t enjoy it because I didn’t understand it? I didn’t enjoy ‘attack of the 50 foot woman’ either and that is (arguably) within my field of comprehension. If you want to bottom out my source of resentment it’s the reviews calling it a ‘terrifying horror experience’ that led to me shelling out a fiver on watching a bunch of actors talented enough to know better prancing around attempting to inculcate meaning in the most nebulous of scripts.
As a big fan of Wheatly's previous films, A Field in England was a major disappointment. All style and no substance and at times cringe inducing in it's pretentiousness, I was bored for a great deal of the film and when the end came, I just didn't care.
Kill List was great. Sightseers was even better. But this was the most boring film I've seen in ages. Yes, it's well made and has some wonderfully shot scenes in it but I really couldn't get in to it at all. A real fight to stay awake. Disappointing.
THE most pretentious film I have ever watched. Saddened to see it's good reviews. Sightseers was awesome, Kill List started very well, this is unwatchable (not in the horror disturbing sense) A truly awful film that I passionately dislike.
This film is, quite simply, a masterpiece. A real sense of war & how personalities can develop over time. Reece Shearsmith is, truly, a sensational actor. The look on his face as he staggers out of the tent was absolutely terrifying. The scene chilled me to the bone. He was able to portray abject horror with no dialogue. Genius.......
There are simply not enough films about the English Civil War. I'll watch this simply for that reason.
Although this film will tell you nothing about the ECW, excellent film though. You're correct not too many films about the ECW, "Cromwell" is pure nonsense apart from Alec Guiness acting. Try Winstanley a film about the Diggers.
So how did that go for ya?? Haha! Jk jk i know this is an old post but i just gotta check in on this film every now and then and for as far out as it is they did an amazing job with everything.
@@hihowareyou6629 It was an enjoyable film for sure. :-)
@@tigermunky Nice to know that you are still alive, 7 years later
I can't help but keep seeing the main character dancing to a set of traffic light beeps whilst off his head on speed in the TV series Spaced.
Ya owe me 20 quid!
There’s a main character?
@@kelpkelp5252 Yes, Keanu Reeves.
Just watched it in the Cinema here in Austin TX. A stunning piece of cinema. Funny, creepy, and beautiful.
Kermode is right about that scene with the guy coming out of the tent. It's seriously unsettling.
Fluffykeith, agree completely. It's seeing someone who's so obviously broken and only knowing what went o the tent by the screams. This film truly is a masterpiece.
The look on Shearsmith's face as he staggers out of the tent was absolutely terrifying. He truly is a sensational actor- able to portray abject horror with no dialogue. Genius.......
@@jonsegerros Calling someone obnoxious while using the suffix "tard". Grow up.
@@jonsegerros it's difficult to maintain reasonable discussion after "libtard" is used.
@@skullyman409 whatever
Kermode's passion for great cinema is enthralling
A friend and I were so excited about this release. We went to the pub, had some drinks and a little smoke, then went to his house to watch this masterpiece. It was a big event. We thought the silent prologue was quite artsy. After a few minutes we decided the silent film was cinematic effect and the sound would probably erupt upon some cannon fire to really kick us in to the midst of battle. After about 40 minutes we discovered the sound on the telly was broken. It was ruined by that point so we stopped watching. I still haven't seen it :(
Have you seen it yet??
Wanna watch it bro. Be honest with you I had the same preparation but just the smoke this time and after a few I watched it and it’s great but the scene with the tent and whitehead leaving while high is genuinely horrifying. I skipped the last 15 seconds of that scene as I don’t scare easily but that was something else. So maybe some advice there
Did you watch it yet? I think it's still BW's high water mark even after High Rise
I'm genuinely surprised by the negativity and snootiness on display in abundance here. I agree this isn't the easiest film to watch, it requires some active intellectual participation and effort on the viewers part. Yet despite some of the comments below I didn't find any element of this film boring or pretentious. The lengthier and more surreal scenes work because they function as stand alone images that fit within the framework of an ambiguous plot. I thought it was marvellous!
Remember watching on film4 when it released and just ordered it on dvd. One of the best low budget english films i have ever seen.
lol budget
The plot is pretty straightforward. Whitehead, Cutler, Jacob and Friend are all dead and are making their way to an Ale house (Heaven) through a field in England (Purgatory), however, on the way they encounter O'Neil (Satan), who forces them to dig a pit (Grave/Hell/Eternal Death). O'Neil is finally defeated, but the four heroes are still full of sin, and so have to start their journey again from the beginning.
In one brilliant that really makes sense!
yes, I'd thought of the purgatory idea too. But it's also a very rich allegory of England and the changes it underwent during the Cromwellian period. All sorts of struggles for primacy: a Mexican stand-off between Superstition, Religion and Science; the transition from tyrannical to democratic monarchy; altruism over egotism. BTW only Whitehead, Friend and Jacob return back through the hedge.
@@clivenaylor5392 Yes, that's right. Cutler probably goes to Hell.
@@ayeshazhukov
O’Neill actually says to Cutler when he gives him the spade ‘Down is the only way out for you’ - so yes, that makes sense.
The elusive plot is to disturb and confound. Surely the point of the film. And a device well used.
i rewatched this after your reference to it in another review. funny how much of it is devoted to the thought of simultaneous delivery of film to all platforms simultaneously in the future, and here we are in 2021 and have seen we can skip the flagship delivery mechanism of cinemas. obviously, the cinema experience is not akin to watching a movie on a mobile phone, the rich experience suspension of disbelief suffers, yet it can be done.
The Director Ben Wheatley has said, "there are other narratives that sit within it. There's the basic get out of going 'Oh, he's just on drugs,' which I don't sign up for, but it's there. I think it's... is he fragments of the same man, or are they in the circles of hell, or are they in Pergatory, and learning more things about each other each time they go through the hedge."
Watched it last night. Exceptionally confusing, but beautiful and well-acted. Very enjoyable, but you've got to prepare yourself; you have to give it your full attention otherwise you will be left miles back down the road.
At times it felt as though it was being deliberately confusing; an exercise in directorial ego-groping rather than something that serves an actual purpose... but still. It's a breath of fresh air.
And the slow-mo shot Mark is describing is creepy as hell.
a truly excellent film. Wheatley really is in a league of his currently. Every feature he's done thus far has been so quintessentially British and no two are the same. Shearsmith is fabulous here. Monty Python meets David Lynch.
I really liked this film
It’s taken me far too long to get round to watching A Field in England. It has all the ingredients that tick my boxes. I love art horror mystery etc films. This, however, just failed for me and I’m genuinely baffled by the accolades it receives. Definitely the emperor’s new field in England. It’s a simplistic, rambling, incoherent form over function A level project.
Whoa, I've been listening to Kermode for years and I think that's the first time I've ever heard him say his wife's name on air. I feel like he makes a concerted effort to keep his family out of the spotlight so I'm surprised to hear him slip up like that.
There should be more films not just about the English Civil Wars but the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- Cromwell
-To Kill a King
- A Field in England
these are the only ones I can think of
Witchfinder-General, Blood on Satan's Claw, Winstanley, the Moonraker, the Scarlet Blade.
@@mortdewerewolfe691 that’s a solid list, if you recall other ones let us know!
I've just watched it and agree with Mark. Very hard to describe. The man walking from the tent creeped me out...
Watched this at the cinema tonight. Absolutely fantastic.
I remember you
Last night was an A-1, tip top clubbing jam fair. It was a sandwich of fun on ecstacy bread, wrapped up in a big bag like disco fudge. It doesn't get much better than that, I just wish sometimes I could control these FOCKING MOOD SWINGS!
Why are people so resistant to the Avant Garde? I understand if you just don't get it but why insist a film is bad because you didn't get it. Not all film is made purely to entertain or make money, this may upset you but some of us like something a bit more stimulating than straightforward exposition, explosions and endless regurgitated plots.
I wonder if its anything like Valhalla Rising?
A Field in England, is for me, by far the best movie ever produced. Yet, I fully appreciate it is hated by many.
I have to say I'm surprised by the negative response here. I wouldn't say the film was brilliant as such, but nor would I say that it was boring or pretentious. The ideas behind it are interesting and since I watched this last week I haven't stopped thinking about it. The dreamlike atmosphere is gripping, frightening and beautiful.
In regards to the distribution model - I just wish I had seen it on telly earlier so I could have nipped down to the cinema the following evening to watch it again.
They will be studying this film in universities for years to come
How to make a terrible film.
@@chocolatewolfe I hate you
It's been overrated by the 'drugs are cool' crowd. 11 years later nobody is studying it in universities particularly.
I just watched it on film4, I have to say, I wasn’t overly impressed. I felt it was building up to something, but it didn’t quite deliver. Interesting but no more than that. I’m going to stick on Night of the Demon and finish my cans.
sorry friend, but you are mistaken...it is a gnostic journey to "the other world" via a hallucinatory experience- a combination of mushroom trip and "operative fasting".
Thanks for the tip; I watched it because of you.
watched what
It's been weeks since I watched this. The events in my own life since I watched this have changed my original horrified perspective. I was sickened by the tent scene, but having been through shocking experience myself this past week. I believe he comes from the tent enlightened. Crosses over. Quite a different fellow. Hard to explain but sometimes enlightenment is painful.
I think this could have been a truly great film had the director not made several odd and silly choices throughout-- thinking specifically of the campy sound effects and occasionally self-aware dialogue. The casting was superb and there were several points where it was genuinely strange, evocative, terrifying... I feel like it's a film with excellent pieces that fail to cohere at the last minute.
Absolutely fantastic! That slow-mo sequence is very arresting indeed. All in all another wonderful film by Wheatley.
At 2:12 in that clip did anyone else think there was a lawnmower going on in the background?
Smiley creeps me out
1970ish UK TV play reboot!
Somebody dropped acid in the tea at Hammer Studios.Watch this at the pictures.Or wait for the Super8mm 400' edit.
I’ve finally seen this , and wow, what a film!
"The most pretentious film I have ever watched."
That sounds like a very pretentious statement to me.
Given how pretentious Kermode is that's really saying something
On the channel 4 app at the moment, It made me feel like when I watched stalker both real good.
Winstanley, the Wrath of Shrooms. I agree about the 'coming out of the tent' scene, but the subsequent events aren't as creepy, especially given the out-of-place, Blackadderish dialogue exchange towards the end ('... catchy!'). This isn't as effective as the recent American indie Yellowbrickroad, which, although flawed, tries to sustain a malevolence that AFIE fudges.
This sounds absolutely fantastic.
Just seen the film...fantastic
Look's like an interesting watch, although I'm sure it will build me up just to drop me down with a disappointing bump like Kill list did.
its an excellent film.....what else you going to watch? the usual spoon fed CGI crap?...yeah it makes you think and is disturbing in places....but if you want to watch a film that makes you think after....this is for you....if you just want a "maccy D" type fix....then go watch superman.
your explanation as well as his sound pretty spot on and im glad that I somewhat understood the film in the same context.
I was not to enamoured with A Field in England. There are viewers here defining it as "stimulating" and "excellent", which I find interesting. The film for me became a showcase of cinematic technique, pulling me away from the film in a Brechtian awareness of the production, which ruined the film. It often felt like traditional screenplay dialogue was being pulled into the Avant Garde by the direction. It just didn't work for me. Some great technique & ideas, but not enough to be AvantG.
Man, I thought he reviewed an actual field in england. I am disappointed
I've just made a similar comment. Same sort of crowd who complain that their tax money goes towards the arts. Their is precious little Avant Garde cinema as it is, but they would even deprive us of that if they had their way.
reference?
I watched it on Prime Video on my phone, I envy people who have watched it at the theater.
It might have been great or it might have been emperors new clothes.....all I know is I didn't appreciate it, it didn't hold my attention after the first 10 minutes and I couldn't wait for it to be over......having said that when it comes around again I'll give it a second chance.
Captures the atmosphere ,well acted the black ,and white gives it depth.!
I tried watching but after fifteen minutes was confused and bored, nothing seemed to be happening and never really cared what the ending was. Chances are its a really good piece of Cinema but its wasted on proles like me.
you know this is important to review for artillery purposes but some great movies just need 2 breathe
Open up and let the devil in!
Nothing happens in the tent, because O'Neill doesn,t exist!
Damn it , forgot it was on Hush bored me so much turned over
But the point is, that doesn't matter.... :)
still no answers.
Isn't that the point?
Looks a bit like Baldrick....
ook??😣
This film was so dull it genuinely enraged me.
Man, you must have watched a different film.
Callum Sutherland I didn’t. However, there isn’t one second that has passed since that I don’t overwhelmingly wish I had. I would honestly consider having Jeffrey Dahmer inject acid into my brain if it meant I could erase the memories of this supernaturally execrable exercise in art house self congratulation.
Come on. You may not have appreciated it or understood it, but dull?! I can think of many, many arty films that could describe, but A Field in England is shot through with tension, subtly shifting dynamics and, for an arthouse film, a fairly rapid and breathless plot; I'm not sure where you're getting 'self-congratulatory' from either, as the understatedness of the film is probably half of the dullness you're complaining at.
Callum Sutherland that old chestnut was that I didn’t enjoy it because I didn’t understand it? I didn’t enjoy ‘attack of the 50 foot woman’ either and that is (arguably) within my field of comprehension. If you want to bottom out my source of resentment it’s the reviews calling it a ‘terrifying horror experience’ that led to me shelling out a fiver on watching a bunch of actors talented enough to know better prancing around attempting to inculcate meaning in the most nebulous of scripts.
As a big fan of Wheatly's previous films, A Field in England was a major disappointment. All style and no substance and at times cringe inducing in it's pretentiousness, I was bored for a great deal of the film and when the end came, I just didn't care.
Geoffrey Rush is violator doing these small films.
Kill List was great. Sightseers was even better. But this was the most boring film I've seen in ages. Yes, it's well made and has some wonderfully shot scenes in it but I really couldn't get in to it at all. A real fight to stay awake. Disappointing.
What is it with you people and your plots? It's like The tree of life discussion all over again.
I really hate the person in glasses. He is so ostentatious
This film, although directed very well, was a disappointing mess.
THE most pretentious film I have ever watched. Saddened to see it's good reviews. Sightseers was awesome, Kill List started very well, this is unwatchable (not in the horror disturbing sense) A truly awful film that I passionately dislike.
interested to see if your opinion has changed in a decade.