Culloden (1964) (TV)

Director:

Peter Watkins

Writer:

Peter Watkins (writer)

Release Date:

24 May 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama | History | War

Plot:

A reconstruction of the Battle of Culloden, the last battle to take place on British soil, as if modern TV cameras were present. |

Plot Keywords:

Battle | Butchery | Death | Soldier | Army

Cast

Olivier Espitalier-Noel	...	Prince Charles Edward Stuart
George McBean	...	Alexander McDonald
Robert Oates	...	Private Alexander Laing

Also Known As:

The Battle of Culloden (USA)

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Scottish Gaelic

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Culloden Moor, Highland, Scotland, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Quotes:

Narrator: [introducing the Jacobite military command] Sir Thomas Sheridan, Jacobite military secretary. Suffering advanced debility and loss of memory. Former military engagement, 56 years ago. Sir John MacDonald, Jacobite captain of cavalry. Aged, frequently intoxicated, described as 'a man of the most limited capacities.' John William O'Sullivan...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Ex-S: Culloden: Making Reel History" (1996)

Incredible

This is one of the films (even though shown on TV, it absolutely qualifies as cinema) that shaped my childhood, my politics, and my love of film-making and its true potential. I remember being simply blown away, not merely by the intensity of the violence and aggression (I had never seen war filmed like this), but by the passion and the pain of the "ordinary people" - the Scots, especially the Scottish women - as they witnessed the English brutality around them. Totally extraordinary to me also, was the fact that the camera team felt so moved as to intercede in the violence - not merely breaking the boundaries of media "objectivity" in a way that had rarely, if ever, been done before in 1964, but also breaking the boundaries of time - remember, we are in a war here that is taking place in 1746, and yet it seems perfectly natural and believable to have a camera team pushing into frame, protesting the behavior of the English troops.

Peter Watkins went on to make many groundbreaking movies, but little can touch Culloden - the closest is Punishment Park, which uses much the same techniques to follow a group of students and protesters in a slightly fictionalized and rather fascist USA, where (as I recall - I haven't seen the movie in years), they are given a "choice" between internment or a (loaded) chance to "run", with the risk/likelihood of being shot and killed by their paramilitary pursuers.

A minor personal note: I saw Culloden on TV while I was very young and at school in Britain. It is a hard film to find - at least until the recent DVD - but I came across it again at the Sydney Public Library, of all places, during a trip to Australia in the 1990s, and sat watching it on 16mm, on a Moviola in the library - as stunned and moved as I had been the first time I saw it. It was reassuring to know that its power had not diminished.