Shooting the Past

This production is a work of profound beauty and intelligence. The dynamics of this film take you on a wonderful journey from the edge of your seat to the back of your mind. The actors fully inhabit their roles with all the humour and tragedy that involves, as the story unfolds. The success of the actors was to convey so much with such minimal, yet superb, dialogue.

The action unfolds in the almost wordless present (more usually suited to "action genre"), yet the film's major theme can only be resolved by the characters understanding of a broader present context that reaches back to the past and forward to their future. The characters dilemma is specific to the plot yet generalises to us all.

The subtlety and scope of this production grows with each viewing, as does the admiration for the casting, acting, directing, editing and musical scoring. If any of the components were less than exceptional, then it wouldn't be THIS film. If your looking for a film with timeless grace and immediate relevance, this will always be it.

....I cannot think of any other films quite like it, and think it draws more from theater, classical painting, photography, and great literature. However I would liken it most to a very visual feature length piece of music with superb production value - perhaps Roger Waters's "Amused to Death".

I will unreservedly add my name to the unanimous chorus of approval this TV mini-series has received below. It more than deserves. It is up to that very highest standard of authorial British TV drama penned by the likes of Alan Bleasdale, Dennis Potter, Mike Leigh, Troy Kennedy Martin and numerous others. This is the first Poliakoff show I have seen, and I must say it's great to discover a great TV writing talent *current* to these times (Bleasdale seemingly having peaked with "GBH", Leigh being a national treasure in film, most recently shown by the delightful "Topsy-Turvy"), and I will check out "Perfect Strangers" soon.

Poliakoff indeed directs as well, and does a better job (albeit with much more cohesive, fully-formed script material) with his own script than Dennis Potter did with his direction of his own "Blackeyes". Whereas "Blackeyes" had some beautiful dialogue and usual use of music to great emotional effect, it is a threadbare, over-stretched series in comparison to "Shooting the Past", which has economy (though I could have happily watched hours more), precision and great emotion and humanism in its writing.

Suffice to say, performances are top notch. Timothy Spall magnificent in bringing to life this oddball, yet formidable, unpredictable *and* very endearing character of Oswald. Lindsay Duncan is astonishing really, thoroughly convincing and wonderfully expressive physically and vocally. Liam Cunningham is marvelous also as the American magnate type figure, who turns out not to be quite the archetype we suspect him to be. Billie Whitelaw I liked in a more minor role, this other worker in the museum who can only "beaver away" in her words...! My, Emilia Fox was enchanting as the modish, but inscrutable and otherworldly Spig... The video I have of this series has these two monologues at the end which are a very nice bonus, showing just how much can be done with photographs and storytelling.

Of course, the aural and visual still set pieces, composed of stills and Lindsay Duncan's narrations are absolutely engaging and enchanting. Liam Cunningham's acting all the way through these, is superlative. Overall, I don't think a mere precis of mine can truly be adequate; suffice it to say, a labour of love, an encapsulation of the saddest and finest emotions and an argument for eccentricity and intelligence and even hope in humanity...

Rating:- *****/*****

The atmosphere created in Shooting the Past is so compelling that it draws the viewer into its improbable world, and we accept that it could happen. The music is hypnotic, the photographs are fascinating, but most of all, the performances are wonderful. Lindsay Duncan is passionate and controlled at the same time - her dedication to her job is absolute. The sexual tension between her character and Liam Cunningham's is another factor that made it impossible to stop watching. All the English characters seem eccentric in some way, as you might expect from people who work in a photo library, but they are all 3-dimensional and I felt that I knew them by the end. As usual, Poliakoff has created a fantasy world which seems like the real world, but unexpected things happen and it's difficult to predict what the outcome will be. It gives us hope that we can do unexpected things ourselves. It is a drama of astonishing depth and must be seen - preferably several times.

I am not a film buff, nor artistic to any degree, and I like action adventures just as much as the next brainless idiot. But this film is so generally superb that it even enticed me to make comment on this database. I am old, and British, and therefore have an affinity with the surroundings and the characters portrayed, as over my lifetime I have met similar similar doing all sorts of differing jobs. The type of eccentric played by Timothy Spall (superbly, but then we British would not have expected anything less of him) occurs more often than one would think. The diffident librarian captured perfectly by Billy Holiday. The Lady boss whom over time has lost nearly all of her self-consciousness at being put in charge of people whom display more knowledge and intelligence than she first gave them credit for, was played by Lindsay Duncan and was Brilliant. The unfortunate tycoon who found himself as the unwilling villain of the piece, is most sensitively played by Liam Cunninham. All the supporting cast played their characters extremely well. I recognised even the junior tea lady from the stance I remember from the past. There is just no criticism I can make of this production the direction , photography, music all blends into a seamless story of the fairly recent past.

I am not given to undue praise, but this film you may show to any member of family without offence. Although the Americans get slightly cast as villains, I can assure them all that Big business in Britain could equally be so cast, but would unlikely to have come out so well thought of.

Get this film and loose yourself in 2/3 hours of unadulterated thought provoking entertainment

Shooting the Past is a fine piece of work. It entertains, it makes you think, it deals with issues and you end up discussing it and thinking about it at length afterwards.

The scenario is somewhat far-fetched - it is inconceivable that most of the staff at the archive would be unaware of the plans to chuck them out of a listed building - the place would have been swarming with bureaucrats for months before the bulldozers arrived, if indeed anything that requires bulldozers would have been permitted. Further, it also seems inconceivable that a man with a passion for his new business school and with mission-critical deadlines would visit the place for the first time without having verified that the archivists were moving out.

But we forgive Poliakoff his fanciful scenario because it sets up a terrific and taught drama.

Lindsay Duncan is simply superb, as is Timothy Spall as the "borderline autistic, photo-savant" Oswald.

Some of the cinematography (if you call it that in made for TV films) is superb - in particular the long shots of Liam Cunningham walking through the archive and the film shots of still photos.

This is fine stuff and highly recommended.