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Touches You

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Fantastic

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

In this saga, where it's set in the 17th century in rural England where a nervous man goes along with three others during the chaos of a civil war to try and locate the man who vexed or did some wrong to his master and once he comes upon this sorcerer of sorts (O'Neil is his name, played by a great British character actor, Michael Smiley, you've seen him before somewhere) who makes this man and the others dig in the dirt to find treasure that may likely not be there, it's all about its unique sense of the world through visuals. This is black and white, grimy and gritty, where men have to squat and take s***ts and may end up being stung by nettles (or already have various ailments since it's g-ddamn 17th century backwoods England), and the director is one for bringing out the artifice in this stylized world, how it is all a moving painting after all.For the first hour I was digging what is a fairly unique experience, with a filmmaker really in love with the kinds of films that Herzog and perhaps Tarkovsky too made in their prime (Aguirre and Andrei Rublev come to mind at first, especially Herzog with the moments where the characters pause to be frozen - but we know they're being frozen as they intentionally pose - for tableaux that are funny and disturbing, but paintings all the same). It's also wildly violent at times, and the shock of it is visceral but it's also done in such a way that we shouldn't be too repelled by it since it already goes hand in hand with everything else around these people.There are hallucinatory touches here and there - a moment of intense screaming from Whitehead, as he follows O'Neil into a tent and proceeds to scream for a reason we can't see or know exactly why (call it the wiles of a sorcerer I guess) leads to Whitehead walking out of the tent being led by a rope tied around him, and it's done in the sort of intense slow-motion long take that might make von Trier sit up and take notice. It's a massive moment in a movie that is meant to wow us with visual splendor over plot, which is fine... until the last half hour when it becomes *only* that. Wheatley is working from a script (written by someone else) so there is the semblance of a story, and the small cast makes it that we know who everyone is despite some (though certainly not all) of the dialog being that British that needs subtitles.But, know this before going in, this movie is weird. I mean like, weird-weird, the sort of weird that tests my thresh hold as someone who loves weird s***. I think the thing for me is the context: is it from the mushrooms that Whitehead scarfs down while squatting in the field more than halfway into this movie? What's with the, uh, fuzzy planet that he keeps seeing in the sky coming his way? And then Wheatley and his editors go completely daffy with cutting together and superimposing images like there's no tomorrow - there's actually a warning at the start of the film that there are intense strobe effects (guess Wheatley may not get too many epileptics coming up to him with Field in Englanfd posters) - and it all is impressive on the surface.... but at the end of it all, what's the point? I couldn't help but feel by the end of this that I wasted my time, even as I was impressed by the actors who really commit to this world, and it's a truly unique world that we feel immersed in, because there wasn't a good emotional through-line. That may sound like I'm not opening myself up to the experimentation or poetry but, believe me, I was. I left this somewhat cold, admiring it being a vision from someone really going for something daring, but not giving a squib for the people on screen - and by the last ten minutes especially it's squarely an exercise in style and ultra-violence (how a couple of characters die is especially graphic, I mean gratuitously so). A Field in England is like when your much hipper friend on facebook posts some obscure underground rock album that is supposedly one of the coolest/most hardcore things you've never heard before. And there may be a reason it's obscure.

I've seen this project labelled as 'pretentious' by more than one reviewer. I'm not sure that's fair. And yet it is difficult to find a label for this film at all. It succeeds in being like nothing I've ever seen. Is it even a horror? Well, judging by the incredible acting from Reece Shearsmith in one scene alone, I'd say yes.Shot in black-and-white and financed by Film4, this was released on that television channel at the same time as its cinema release. What really impresses me about this is the incredible acting on display. The cast is made up of names mainly associated with their comedic work, and all are exemplary. Subject to the harsh conditions displayed on camera by director Ben Wheatley (a British talent really making a big impression), his cast were encouraged to improvise to a certain extent, thus producing passionate and organic characters. Shearsmith and Julian Barrett (famous as one half of 'The Mighty Boosh' amongst other things) in particular, turn in amazing performances, but everyone involved really rises to the occasion. This is by turn baffling, violent, outrageously funny, frightening and strangely touching.Some of the whirlwind style of story-telling maybe due to the characters' indulgence with natural hallucinogens. As a lot of the action appears to be seen from various points of view, this may be the reason why things appear to happen in a non-linear style. Such usage (in this case 'magic' mushrooms are consumed in quantity) was often used during the English Civil War, which serves as the setting for this. The wide, open-skied setting becomes an endless, rolling playground – or tomb.During one scene, the bullying O'Neill character (Michael Smiley) shows the submissive Whitehead (Shearsmith) a vision of death/hell inside a tent, which the audience does not witness. Instead, we get Whitehead's subsequent reaction – his mind is damaged by the vision, and yet instead of running from the scene, he emerges from the tent with a death-head smile of disturbing serenity on his face. Shown in slow-motion, it is worth seeing 'A Field in England' for this startling scene alone – although it is much more effective in the context of this strange and wonderful project.

Other reviews must be written by people with vested interests. No real story, poor dialogue, poorly acted. 90 minutes of my life completely wasted. I do not often write reviews but in this case made an exception to prevent others from wasting their time. Absolutely awful film. I had to revisit my text as I did not have enough lines for a review, so I am not sure how many times I can write awful but we shall see. the black and white filming gives what I hoped would be an authentic feel to a civil war drama, what you get is poorly shot drivel, a story that does not have a clue where it is going, acting out of your local school play (sorry that's an injustice) and utter crap. Is that enough lines IMDb?

This movie is like Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" transported back to England in the middle 1660s. The acting, costumes, speech and action are all very good, excellent. The whole effect is what one would imagine the English Civil War period would be like. The film is abstract, metaphorical and profound in its character interaction. I felt I "was there", transported back in time. The story-line is meant to be obtuse and may put a lot of people off. It's difficult to understand. However, the overall effect is very good. I recommend this film to anyone who is into knowing something about what men were like in the middle 1600s in England. I also recommend this film to anyone who enjoys something that is not usual.