Throughout September I will be raiding my collection of favourite movies to review one a day, with a focus on overlooked and underappreciated films.
Where to find it: YouTube
Length: just over an hour
Synopsis: The Battle of Culloden, in the style of BBC documentaries of the time
Recommendation rating: 4/5
What I like about it: a wonderfully didactic history lesson
What I don’t like about it: it’s no fun popcorn flick
Review:
Peter Watkins is a fascinating filmmaker, tending to favour an experimental documentary style over what he refers to as ‘the monoform’ of dramatic entertainment. Throughout his career, he filmed many fascinating and unflinchingly bleak documentaries on subjects like nuclear weapons and the Paris Commune, as well as satirical fiction such as Privilege, Punishment Park and the fantastic Gladiators. He would prove to be a formative influence on Adam Curtis, who is a formative influence on me.
In this, his first feature-length work, the Battle of Culloden is re-enacted by amateur actors as if a documentary crew were able to time-travel to the battlefield. The effect really works as unfolding developments build significant emotion for what seems, at first, like a dry history lesson.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): grim horrors of war, vividly described