Ben Wheatley: 'A Field In England'

Seeking both cinematic entertainment and some distraction from the toothache and neuralgia that currently plague me, I wandered along to Leicester’s Phoenix media centre yesterday to watch director Ben Wheatley’s latest film, ‘A Field In England’. [1.].  The film very much reflects the multi-platform media saturation of our current culture, having been released simultaneously on TV, DVD and digital download as well as in cinemas.  However, it also harks back to an era before ‘experimental’, self consciously arty, alternative film degenerated into a series of predictable slacker tropes, (that I sometimes think of as the Sundown effect).  Lacking a TV, and pushing up against my Broadband limit, I opted to view it in a big, dark room.

Director, Ben Wheatley

The film itself is a perplexing period tale, set in the English Civil War, in which four mismatched deserters escape a battle by literally passing through a hedgerow into the parallel reality of a large field beyond, where the remaining action unfolds.  Tricked by one of their number into the clutches of a psychopathic ‘alchemist,’ they are first drugged with  hallucinogenic mushrooms, then forced to dig for treasure, before acting out a graphically violent denouement.

Critical opinion seems divided over the film’s merits and I’ve no idea if it’s really a piece of brilliant filmmaking or a heap of self indulgent tosh but I’ve always been a sucker for this kind of thing and enjoyed it immensely.  Like most of my favourite films it resembled a dream or hallucination, (quite literally in the powerful trippy sequences), full of perplexing events and inexplicable behavior but also layered with multiple potential interpretations.  To criticise it in terms of believability or formal cinematic conventions seems as pointless as applying waking logic to a resonant dream.

(L to R): Richard Glover (Friend), Reece Shearsmith  (Whitehead), Michael
Smiley (O'Neill), Ryan Pope (Cutler), Peter Ferdinando (Jacob)

Reece Shearsmith Makes A Point As Whitehead

My only real objection on such pedantic grounds would be that the fungi ingested resemble field mushrooms rather than the ‘magic’ variety.  However, as they may also represent an immense ‘fairy ring’ into which the protagonists have blundered, it’s possible that the field represents a supernatural realm as much as a psychedelic arena.  As such, it may stand for an ancient, occult Britishness, far removed from the Christian factionalisation and worldly concerns of the skirmish they abandon.  Judged on these grounds, ‘A Field In England’ may certainly join other landmarks of ‘Dark Britannia’ (‘The Wicker Man’, ‘Children Of The Stones’, etc.) as a cult favourite.

Whitehead Is Driven Around The Field In Search Of Treasure...

...Then Takes A Completely Different Kind Of Trip

As usual these days, the film evokes numerous clear influences and I was reminded, amongst other things, of both Tarkovski’s ‘Stalker’ and the now, oft-derided films of Peter Greenaway, (particularly in the scenes where the actors are frozen in static, formally posed tableaux).  I was also reminded of a time, in the mid to late eighties, when I regularly visited Bristol’s Watershed Cinema to watch similarly self-indulgent, yet thought provoking, films.  For a time I happily went at least once a week, both in company and alone.

Michael Smiley As O'Neill Gets Back To The Land

As I waited in the dark for the film to start yesterday, I realised I was amongst only a handful of other viewers, several other of whom were also solitary male ‘enthusiasts’ of a certain age.  I appear to have unwittingly joined a group for whom I’ve devised the acronym ‘MALEs’, (‘Middle Aged Lone Eccentrics’), i.e. The kind of guys who when not watching art films, you also see obsessively photographing torn posters, derelict buildings and road junctions.

Richard Glover Digs In As Friend

Anyway, 'A Field In England' is one of the more memorable new films I've seen in a while, (during a period when many others have seriously disappointed).  It seems I can't see the dentist for another week so need to go now to find another painkiller...



[1.]:  'A Field In England, Dir: Ben Wheatley, Rook Films/Film4 Productions, 2013