Tawny Pipit

A film that I have only recently discovered. I taped it late one night and copied in onto another tape cutting out the adverts. What a marvelous little film this is with the subliminal message that nobody is going to change the English village way of life. I made a point of visiting Lower Slaughter yesterday and the village is identical to how it was 62 years ago. The mill wheel and the bridge behind it remain the same, great film, great location and a marvelous slice of social and cinema history. I am sure that I saw a Tawny pipit in the distance.Unlike the Titfield Thunderbolt which shows an England that does not exist anymore this great film shows locations that remain the same to this day.

The film was largely shot in Lower Slaughter and is a fascinating historical record of the Cotswolds during WW2. Today Lower Slaughter is a much visited village; the buildings are largely unchanged and the mill wheel still turns, if only for show. In "An eye for a Bird" 1970 Eric Hosking, who was the ornithological advisor for the film wrote : "It was decided that it was quite impossible to contemplate filming an actual tawny pipit; it nests mainly on the Continent where the war was raging. It was decided to photograph a pair of ordinary meadow pipits and keep to shots which showed the back view only; the tawny has a plain breast and the meadow a speckled one, but their back plumage is very similar."

When convalescing RAF pilot Niall MacGinnis and his nurse, Rosamund John, are out bird watching in rural Gloucestershire, they spot a Tawny Pipit -- not just one, but only the second nesting pair in English history. They rouse the entire village to protect these visitors in a wartime paean to British kindliness and back-country values.

Bernard Miles and Charles Saunders co-direct from a script of their own devising. Miles also acts in heavy make up as a wheel-chair bound military man. It's a well-told story, but very heavy-handed in its subtextual message, as the local Church choir sings a composition about the birds, and later regales a visiting Soviet sniper with "The Internationale", in a sequence in which Miles gives her his old machine gun and Land Girl Jean Gillie wonders if she would be as good a shot were the old Land of Hope and Glory invaded.

I can't help but compare this to the sort of movie that Ealing would become famous for; this comes off as beating the matter to death, with few of the oddly endearing eccentrics that Ealing would use to make its central theme clear. Still, it's very watchable throughout with some good performances.

Truly beautiful and atmospheric British film made in rural UK during WW2, Tawny Pippit shows the delicate balance sought during a dangerous time. All the adjectives apply as it is charming and delightful and especially emotional given the war was raging and this gently kind film offers an insight into the human condition. Other films like A BOY A GIRL AND A BIKE or the 1959 version of THE 39 STEPS allow international viewers to really appreciate the Brit humor of the countryside. There is a German film made in the alps late during the war about a shepherd and the fauna and flora as a paradise balance to the war raging nearby (I don't know its title) and TAWNY PIPPIT is almost a British counterpart. Young viewers might find it all a bit Dad's Army, but mature viewers will get the lovely feeling this films wants you to have.

Shows rural England in a very nostalgic light and obviously intended to "cheer up" the audience after 5 years of war. Contains interesting elements within a small setting -- the alliance of the people (not just government) with the Red Army/Soviet ally; a decorated Royal Air Force pilot convalescing after serious injury; Land Army women and evacuation of children away from big cities. Suggested that the people of small communities working together can influence government and large organisations (such as the Army) to protect a small but significant environment in which a very rare bird was nesting in a nearby field, (believed to be the first time in living memory). Beautiful countryside, suggested to be the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire or Gloucestershire, but sadly no location was given for where filming actually took place.