1066

1066: THE BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH is a two-part Channel 4 miniseries that unwisely likens the situation of that year to Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS, undoubtedly in a bid to draw in more viewers. My question is: why? There are, I suppose, superficial similarities between the stories, in that rural shires are invaded by enemies, but the effect in whole is to lessen the experience. Why does the film bang on about elves in the wood and orcs when it should really be getting on with telling the story of the three battles of that year?

There are some good aspects to be found here. The costumes are authentic and the locales are good too, even if it does look like the whole miniseries was shot in the same forest. The (brief) glimpses we get of Saxon life are intriguing and the recreation of a Saxon village at the opening is promising. Sadly, the film then descends into a load of blokes larking around in the woods, complete with dodgy shaky-cam choreography that really DOESN'T work and a script aimed at the level of soap fans rather than a historical epic.

The main problem is the lack of budget, which makes any attempt at depicting the battles of Stamford Bridge or Hastings hopeless; there's no way they can get across the scale and violence of these battles when they're reduced to a few chaps fighting on the edge of a field. Take a classic scene in point: the sole Viking holding the bridge and slaughtering any enemy who approaches him. This is the stuff of legends, yet it's reduced to a fat bloke standing on some wooden planks getting speared by a bad actor. Not good! The frequent quotes and captions that are used to authenticate the story are good, as is Ian Holm's narration. But when they start using maps at the climax to show how the battle at Hastings fared, you wonder whether they'd have been better off making a documentary with staged inserts instead. Certainly the acting is poor, and the use of TV actors explains this. There's no characterisation and no real depth or feeling to what's going on.

The tone seems to go all over the place. The Vikings attack, rape and pillage loads of people in the North and are defeated, then one leading Saxon warrior has a crisis of conscience and almost cries when an enemy he's fighting gets impaled. Would he really have acted like this, or would he have hacked his enemy's head off in revenge for the barbarity he's inflicted? I know which one would have really happened. The same goes for the surviving Viking unexplainably joining the Saxons to fight at Hastings.

Attempts at humour are lamentable and the efforts to show the battle from all sides only serve to lessen the experience. Sure, the idea of showing epic stuff like this from the 'soldier's eye' view is a good one, but almost everything is done wrongly. The worst bit, for me, is when one group of soldiers form into a 'wedge' to attack the other's shield wall – before the shield wall has even been created! This so-called 'attack' then consists of a group of blokes charging into the others, who instantly break their defensive wall to fight individually. It all turns into a messy scrum, and you wonder if anyone involved had any idea of what they were trying to depict. For a truly authentic account of Saxon warfare, try reading Bernard Cornwell's excellent Saxon stories, beginning with The Last Kingdom. They're set a couple of hundred years before this, but the depiction of Saxon vs. Viking combat far exceeds anything on display here.

As a reasonably educated Englishman of the 80's, (I scored the highest boy's total in the London Borough of Sutton's 11+ exams in 1978... and then went on to attend the Grammar School with the highest 'O' Level Pass Rates in the UK), I recall a trip to view the tapestry and writing our thoughts on it... scene by scene. We also enjoyed standard, compulsory, Latin and French lessons, alas, subjects now relegated to 'Higher Edukashun'... Consequently I have watched this several times. Most recently I, again, had tears in my eyes for most of the first 2 hours; until, I, too, like Leofric, became hardened to a life that could be considered, back then, 'customary'.

I've visited the Battle site twice before... and will be doing so again shortly... as a direct result of this film.

What abuses?... What cowardice?...What hardships?... and what joys ALL of our shared ancestors duly orchestrated, enjoyed and suffered to enable eacvh and every one of us to be here now? My mitochondrial DNA shows 'Viknigr' links, whilst my Best Friend has a proved lineage back to a specific '1066' Norman Chevalier... Whilst my Wife has a proved lineage back to Alfred the Great.

My Step-daughter asked me..."What's the point of this film"?... and I explained that within a generation of the Norman Invasion no land was owned by an 'Anglo_Saxon' Englishmen and that withiin the same time-frame the 'Top 5' names for boys changed from the traditional Anglo-Saxon ones to 'William' and 'Henry' and 'John' etc... and those 'new' "Top 5" boys' names hardly changed for over 1000yrs!! Just look at how many with Norman names drafted the American declaration of Independence!?! The most poignant point is right at the end: That in 1066 just 190 people were given a 5th of England as bounty... and that now, over 1000yrs later, one fifth of England is still owned by descendants of those very same people. Research a bit more and you'll find they are our bankers, ours politicians, our Town Mayors and our 'Celebs'... The rest of us are, and always will be, just "the little people of the Shire" Alas.. That's why History is now so poorly taught! A subservient, "X-factor" voting, plebeian is SOOO much easier to manipulate :(

This is a very interesting and very well made reenactment of the famous Battle of Hastings and the events around it. It takes its time to bring the whole medieval period closer to the viewer, introduces various characters that may or may not have necessarily existed but are here very useful in conducing the sentiment and the point of view of a common man of the ages.

Acting and cinematography are very good. Directing not so good. Obviously great effort was undertaken to conceal the low budget, which is a good thing, but it also gives a pretty claustrophobic viewing experience (for instance, there are too many close-ups) and at times unconvincing and static battle scenes.

What is really annoying, however, is the bias the story of William's conquest is told with. It paints pictures of poor "true Englishmen", Saxon Englishmen, suffering horrors of defeat at hands of merciless, almost inhumane, Norman invaders who came uninvited to harass peaceful sedentary civilization. As if Saxons themselves, a couple of centuries prior, didn't do exactly the same thing to Romano-Celtic population on the Island. Should we pity them? I'm not quite sure.

But the series wants us to do just that - to identify with one side. And while it makes for some really poignant scenes worth watching, it also makes for a poor history show. The dialog is also sometimes abhorrently naive or inane, completely devoid of humor at that. It would have been so much better show if they didn't turn it into a litany of a loser.

Anyone else a bit shocked to see this: "In doing this, King Edward disregards his earlier promises to give the throne of England to one of his legitimate successors from among his Flemish, Viking or Norman relatives.As a result of this unwise decision, a contest for the English crown begins. "

Uhm, succession to Anglo Saxon ingship was NOT inherited not conveyed by the prior monarch. It was decided by a Witenagemot ("Witen"), and Harold was chosen by the witan. Harold was the "legitimate successor" to Edward.

Now to be sure we need to put the context of invaders into its historic frame, The Celts invaded and dominated the prior populations, the Aglo Saxons invaded and dominated prior populations, and so to did the Normans. So one can say that no one is truly legislate or illegitimate because no population is truly "autochthonous" and every single place on earth is dominated by invading populations who simply invaded prior invading populations and that no population on earth is actually "native."

BUT the Normans were different than what had happened in the British isles beforehand. The pre Celtic populations were settlers, the Celtic populations were settlers, the Anglo Saxons were settlers, all bringing in 25% or more added population in a "demic" movement, ie a mass immigration of men women and children. The Norman invasion by William was not demic nor did it include settlers. it was soley a foreign military war-lord class.

As far as the the pair of films that comprise 1066, given it appears to be low budget, is ok. the battle scenes are cheap but in many ways better than high budget but historically completely bogus ones you would see on "Vikings."

The angle of telling the historical story from the fighting man's perspective, was suspensefully implemented. I witnessed the view of the invading Vikings, shared their long journey via the North Atlantic , the excitement of pillaging the anglo -saxon villages, and their thirst for a adventures battles. The main focus however was on the anglo - saxon peasants, who had to leave their homesteads and their loved ones behind, to fight the invaders. Expecting an attack from William the Conquerer from Normandy they had to guard the Sussex Coast. When News arrived, that a mighty Viking force was attacking the Midlands, 200 miles north. Imagine untrained farmers turned soldiers with few professional soldiers (the Kings Guard)commanding them, it was quite an archivement to cover that distance in 4 days, with only dirt path's in that direction. The old roman cobblestone streets run mostly east - west. The hardship of it, is illustrated in great detail, specially when you have watched the extras of the DVD, before you have watched the movie series. This is what I recommend to all viewers. After having seen the extra features, you will appreciate the movie more. Footwear, food, clothing and weaponry really round up the " you have been there " feeling. No Superheroes, or corny over-dramatized characters, just real people trying to survive. The battles however are graphic, nothing for the fainthearted. With fear, panic, cut of limbs, the movie is also not without humor. I remember the Stamford Bridge Battle scene, where eager soldiers from the rear ranks and file pushing the frontline without caution, where an "ole battle hand" in front kept swearing at them, going into certain slaughter. I haven't seen anything like that, so authentic in a period peace battle. King Herold,King Harald and William the Conquerer, take a backstage in this film, it's all about the common fighting man. A very interesting approach, that worked very well in this movie. A refreshing detour from the "300" type of making history movies. The movie is 4 hours short, more than 2 hours are of it spend for the 3 great battles: Midland, Stamford Bridge and Hastings. Yes, the anglo - saxons had to march all the 200 miles back to meet another enemy at Hastings, telling more would spoil the movie. I feel fortunate to own a region free DVD player, otherwise I couldn't see all the great historical movies from europe. There is nothing like this movie here in north America.