Culloden (1964)
Peter Watkins seminal docudrama on the 1746 battle of Culloden. What turned out to be the final throes of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite rebellion and the final subjogation of Scotland by the English.
Watkins filmed this with non-professional actors, actually the people of Inverness, in a tv news style, meaning a film crew was at the heart of the battle commenting and interviewing participators on both sides. The film pulls no punches. Neither side comes out with any respect or sense of achievement, with the English (I'll get back to this in a moment) under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, shown as a sadistic invading force brutally persecuting anyone they came across in their march northwards to destroy the Highland clans.
What Watkins focuses on and makes the whole thing even worse is that the so-called English army that murdered and pillaged weren't actually English. Many of them were lowland Scots from the Campbell clans who sided with the English and hated their Highland brothers who all followed the Macdonald clan. This wasn't the first time this happened either. Notoriously, some 60 or so years earlier the Campbells had slaughtered 38 of the clan Macdonald in Glen Coe, but that's another story. Scottish history is a fascinating blood thirsty subject by the way.
Makes me wonder what would have happened had Charles Edward Stuart not taken his army as far south as Derby in a threatening gesture to English ruler George II just a few short months previous.
The battle plays a big part in the film. It's not skirted round as many docs might do. Watkins gives us a minute by minute run down of the whats, why's and hows with detailed examinations from the battlefront of the plans and weaponry of both sides. The camera is there in the thick of the fight as cannons fire and men are cut down.
This is possibly the finest documentary i've ever seen. It's a completely gripping experience that deserves all it's plaudits and hopefully through this splendid new BFI release will gain a whole new level of audience appreciation.
|