A Field in England

This film screams proto-Lighthouse; black and white historical psychological thriller featuring characters slowly losing their minds? Eggers MUST have taken notes!

Though I wouldn't say AFiE lives up to the monumental highs of Egger's 2017 masterpiece, it is still a unique watch that wasn't bad. Regardless, it is most certainly one of those 'out there' films, and will definitely polarize. Case in point, the hallucination scene near the end is a real spectacle - it manages to give half a glimpse into what our characters are tripping out to, but only that. Characters are also great and acted fantastically, especially Reece Shearsmith's Whitehead, who's got himself a bit of an arc. It can get a little self-indulgent, however, and the tiny cost of production does show, but overall I won't deny A Field in England is a substantial watch for such an under-budgeted film.

I was really excited for Ben Wheatley's latest film. I absolutely loved Kill List and proclaimed it as the best British horror film since Eden Lake (which I love) and when I saw the trailer for A Field in England I thought that it looked right up my street. The trailer was packed with weird imagery and great music and when I realised that it was going to be on the TV I almost fainted (OK a bit of an exaggeration there, but I was very excited). People keep saying that releasing a film on DVD, TV and on the cinema is the future, but I'm not convinced. It might work better for small low-budget films like this but with a highly anticipated Hollywood blockbuster? It would definitely lose money and Hollywood would not be happy. But anyway that's another debate. I decided to catch A Field in England on the TV via recorder and watched it with much anticipation... I was disappointed.

One of my biggest problems with the film is that it is very slow. A good 40 minutes of the film is dedicated to a group of deserters talking and walking. Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of character development, but 40 minutes of little action outside a man having a poo in a field is just too tiresome. However, there were a few funny moments. Things get a little more interesting when Wheatley's favourite, Michael Smiley comes in to the story. He's quite a menacing character who successfully shakes things up a bit. There's also a really great weirdly intriguing moment where a character exits a tent in slow motion with a rope attached to them which promises good things. However, soon after things get boring again with talking and digging.

I also found some of it quite difficult to follow, due to the Olde English dialogue, but I may be on my own there, as I'm a bit thick. Things start to get interesting when a character gorges on a load of magic mushrooms and we are treated to a wonderfully weird hallucinogenic trip, which must be the closest thing to being on hallucinogens since David Lynch's mesmerising Inland Empire. There are loads of flashing images, weird imagery and an unsettling droning score to go with it and it's undeniably unique. I've seen some weird films (weirdest being Conspirators of Pleasure) and this sequence is unlike anything I've seen before. After this things get incomprehensible and it's very difficult to follow.

Normally I would enjoy a Lynchian mind F but it started to feel monotonous and dull at times. Although, I did enjoy the beautifully shot shootout at the end. The film is very stylish, the black and white works very well, the directing is enchanting and the editing is impeccable at times. The film just needed a much thicker plot to go with it all and then there would be a winner. It's something I definitely need to see again to fully appreciate, but as it stands now my feelings towards it are very mixed. Love it or hate it, it's a haunting film that will stay with you for a few days at least which isn't such a bad thing. Is it?

A Field in England is most notable for being the first British film to be simultaneously released across every format on the same night. It has been released theatrically, pay-per-view, on DVD and on free television. It's a pretty audacious move and one that I hope works out for the film-makers as it could be a new way for left-field films to get the go-ahead to get made at all. It also reminded me of what it used to be like in the days before video recorders when I was a little kid. Whenever a movie came on TV it was a cultural event as a large percentage of the population sat down to watch it at the same time – we couldn't record it to watch it later or pause it to go and make a cup of tea we simply had to make time for it at the given moment and watch. I obviously wouldn't swap the flexibility we have nowadays but there was something to be said for sharing a movie at the same time as millions of others. And in a sense, the simultaneous cinema and TV release of A Field in England brings back this scenario and for that I am quite thankful.

The film itself? Well, it's a quite difficult one to accurately judge on a single viewing, as it was pretty confusing on the whole. Director Ben Wheatley said that he wanted to transport the viewer into the world of Civil War England with little exposition to explain what was going on. He wanted us to enter a world where the characters do things that would be second nature to them without actually explaining to us why they were doing them. It's a reasonable enough idea as events in the film appear somewhat surreal as a result. Having said that, I think it's obvious that the story is bizarre regardless of this. It involves an alchemist's assistant and some soldiers fleeing a battle and meeting an ominous cavalier in a field. The latter is looking for some unspecified treasure and he uses these men to find it. Throw in some magic mushrooms to complicate matters and you have one very weird movie.

I'm not 100% certain what to make of it on one viewing. It frustrated me a bit I have to admit, as it didn't necessarily make the most of the sinister possibilities inherent in its storyline. And by the end I really wasn't all that sure what had just happened. But it did intrigue me a little and I would be interested in returning to it at some later point. The cinematography was very good at times, while the soundtrack had an interesting mix of medieval drums, folk and ambient electronica. Acting was good enough with Reece Shearsmith of The League of Gentlemen always a welcome presence, while Michael Smiley was good as the cavalier. I'm not entirely convinced by A Field in England at the minute but I feel like unique films of this type should at least be encouraged in the UK so for that reason I am going to cut it some slack.

Many people may highly disagree with this sentiment, but I believe 'A Field in England' to be a masterpiece. It is a mind-blowing wartime odyssey that pushes the boundaries of narrative cinema, filled with shocks and surprises at nearly every turn. Experimenting with editing and filmmaking techniques to the point of psychedelic madness, Ben Wheatley crafts one of the most successfully surreal works of cinema I have thus far seen. Everything from the often hilarious writing to the hypnotic score is finely injected with intense talent and, in my opinion, enormous entertainment value. The amount of thrills and laughs in this movie totally subverts the idea that art house cinema is often "boring." This film is so alive and free and refuses to surrender to most cinematic norms, and yet it still follows a coherent narrative with memorable and enjoyable characters and genuine suspense; it nearly reaches the heights of a David Lynch masterpiece in terms of its ability to mix radical experimentation and surrealism with an engaging and cohesive story. Since Lynch is by far my favourite filmmaker, that is high praise. Anyone who is willing to be confused, appalled, and oddly amused owes it to his or herself to see this insane work of cinematic psychedelia.

This movie is about ninety minutes of purgatory, I think.

Four men from the time period of Oliver Cromwell, I think, during a battle, I think, escape the perceived carnage by falling through a rural hedge. They form a four-man band and in a weary, bedraggled condition, trudge a field with ale on their mind. What follows then is plain and simple, puzzlement.

After spending an hour figuring out what I had just viewed I've plumped for, what you reap in life is what you sow in the afterlife.

I also watched the director's vague explanation of what the film is about and I am none the wiser. I think my assessment will at least give a future viewer something to mull over.

4/10