The Battle of Culloden (1964) (TV) Culloden (original title)

Director:

Peter Watkins

Writer:

Peter Watkins

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
Peter Watkins	...	Field Interviewer (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Watkins

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peter Watkins

Produced by
Peter Watkins	....	producer

Cinematography by
Dick Bush

Film Editing by
Michael Bradsell

Production Design by
Anne Davey
Colin MacLeod
Brendon Woods

Makeup Department
Ann Brodie	....	makeup artist
Jennifer Veitch	....	assistant makeup artist (uncredited)

Sound Department
John Gatland	....	sound
Lou Hanks	....	sound

Other crew
Rodney Barnes	....	production unit
Valerie Booth	....	production unit
Roger Higham	....	production unit
Jennifer Howie	....	production unit
Michael Powell	....	production unit
John Prebble	....	historical advisor
Geraldine Proudfoot	....	production unit
Geoff Sanders	....	production unit
Derek Ware	....	battle coordinator

Thanks
Iain Campbell Taylor	....	grateful acknowledgment
W.A. Thorburn	....	grateful acknowledgment

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Distributors

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (1964) (UK) (TV)
• National Educational Television (NET) (1968) (USA) (TV)
• Project X Distribution (2006) (Canada) (DVD)
• Project X Distribution (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• BFI Video (????) (UK) (DVD)
• Time Life Films (????) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• National Trust for Scotland, The  grateful acknowledgment
• Scottish United Services Museum  grateful acknowledgment

Also Known As:

"Culloden" - UK (original title)

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Gaelic

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Inverness, Highland, Scotland, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

What the film refers to as "grapeshot" is more commonly referred to as "canister"; bags full of musket balls fired from cannon, like a gigantic shotgun. "Grapeshot" is usually used to refer to much larger shot in a container that breaks up when fired; the name comes from its fancied resemblance to a bunch of grapes.

Quotes:

Narrator:They've created a desert and have called it "peace".

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of Television in Scotland: Other Lives (#1.5)" (2012)

Soundtrack:

My Bonnie Moorhen

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.