Field Punishment No.1

Worst movie ever. I hated it. So boring. But it brings light to important issues, so 1 Star. I'm being very generous.

What a harrowing time Archibald Baxter had in our glorious New Zealand army. His treatment with the other objectors, was shameful bullying. The most poignant part of this story is the way that these courageous men were called cowards by members of the army, when in fact they were by far the bravest, strongest and most admirable men imaginable. This is a matter of fact telling of the story of Archibald Baxter, well acted and paced perfectly. The movement through time which occurs throughout the film, is effective, if a little confusing at the beginning. This would be a good reference point for secondary students, to discuss and debate a range of ideas such as compulsory conscription, the cost of war in financial and human terms, and the ugliness of war.

This is one of the best anti-war films I have ever seen, and I've seen nearly all of the war films ever made, pro and con. I have always been a C.O., and was even defended once by my father, a USAF Master Sergeant, when I was being bullied by a post office employee for writing 'Conscientious Objector' on the top of my draft notice application (or whatever it's called). It was my father who had instructed me to write this since he knew my stance and honored it. This was 1981, six years after the involuntary draft had already been outlawed in the U.S. So, I say all of that to state that this film is not the first I have seen about men forced into war against their wills, but it is the best--so far, anyway. If you are reading this and are still unsure whether war is right or wrong, see this film.

It tells the story of 14 non-religious absolutist conscientious objectors who were sent by the New Zealand government to military camps and prisons in Great Britain, France, and the front to force them to become willing soldiers. It is based on the 1939 memoir by Archibald Baxter.

Archibald Baxter (Fraser Brown) and Mark Briggs (Byron Coll) are two leaders of the conscientious objectors. Both men are unmarried men in their 30s who believe killing anyone or participating in the military at any level is anti-human. At the time, New Zealand recognized only religious conscientious objectors like Quakers or Seventh Day Adventists. The 14 men taken to Great Britain refused to wear the uniform or handle any weapons.

The film begins by showing Baxter being hospitalized and uses flashbacks to recall his experience in camps, prisons, and the front. Non-commissioned officers tended to mistreat the men; fellow privates tended to be more sympathetic. Two of Archibald's brothers, John (Jason Hodzelmans) and Sandy (Damien Avery), are also part of the group. Mark Briggs was the most vocal and absolutist of the group. Baxter ultimately agreed to go to the front without a weapon; Briggs refused to walk to the front and was dragged there by other soldiers. A number of the 14 objectors ultimately became stretcher-bearers, but Baxter and Briggs did not.

This was a hard film to watch because of the physical abuse portrayed, including "field punishment no. 1," which consists of being bound to a stationary object like a post for several hours up to 28 days straight. The extent of the abuse is likely somewhat exaggerated, based on a caveat at the end of the film explaining that not all incidents actually occurred.

Nonetheless, this is a powerful film. Baxter's two sons were also pacifists in World War II.

This is the 23rd in my list of films in which pacifists are primary characters.

Amid all the commemorations of the centenary of World War 1, by far the finest is this New Zealand anti-war film of 14 of its most brave, courageous,and noble citizens: contentious objectors all, refusing as best they could – in the face of intolerable cruelty and torture from NZ Army officers and NCOs – to collude in the industrial-scale insanity of Europe's mass killing slaughter-fest. If the film seems to focus most of it's attention on pacifist objector Archibald Baxter, it's likely because he published 'We Will Not Cease – The Autobiography of a Contentious Objector' in 1939: "The author made his opposition to the war and his attitude to conscription clear in the first years of the conflict, and after the passing of the Conscription Act, he was arrested without even receiving notice that he was required to serve in the Army. In company with other objectors, he was moved from jail to jail. He was transferred on board a troopship to France, and upon arrival there was officially tortured by means of the field punishment known as crucifixion. He suffered unofficial as well as official punishment, and was, on several occasions, beaten up. He was placed alone in an area which was heavily shelled and before he was through with the various attempts to make him change his mind, he was physically and mentally exhausted: prison, bad food (or no food), punishments, illness and nervous strain were at last too much for him and he collapsed, seriously ill, and had to be transferred to a hospital. He was taken (quite unnecessarily it appears) to a mental hospital, which fact was subsequently used against him by the authorities. […] When this book was first published, at the beginning of the Second World War, I sent a copy to Mark Briggs, who had suffered with me in France, with this inscription: 'In memory of days that we can't yet afford to forget.' " ~ Archibald Baxter, 'We Will Not Cease – The Autobiography of a Conscientious Objector', 1968 edition » The film's most memorable hero is Mark Briggs, one of the courageous few socialists who opposed the mass killing of workers "by workers for the benefit of the rich", on the basis of his revolutionary internationalism. Born the son of a Yorkshire farmer, Mark's remarkable tenacity and stubbornness shines through as a paragon of how the best of us can defy the anti-human barbarity of the modern military killing machine. Given humankind's continuing division into nation states, and the ongoing military imperialism (as in 'the highest stage of capitalism') that continues to bring death and destruction to our sisters and brothers in other lands, it's little wonder that much of the global film industry is given over to celebrating men who'll kill Johnny Foreigner for a military wage. Kudos to these Kiwi film-makers for highlighting a far greater and more worthwhile flavour of bravery – the courage of convictions that empowers men to refuse to kill others overseas for the blood money of their local boss class.