Review of A Field in England (2013) by Drago? C — 05 Aug 2013

Directed by Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace (2009), Kill List (2011) and Sightseers (2012)), this looks like a historical period drama on the surface, but it's not. This is a mad, psychedelic odyssey into human madness which owes a lot to the films of Werner Herzog and Alejandro Jodorowsky, it leaves more questions than answers, but it's a brave film for doing that.

Set during the English Civil War in 1648, alchemist and academic Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) has managed to escape from his master Trower (Julian Barratt), and meets up with Cutler (Ryan Pope) and travelers Jacob (Peter Ferdinando) and Friend (Richard Glover).

Cutler is holding Jacob and Friend hostage, and he takes Whitehead with him, and uses magic mushrooms on them to force them to help Cutler and Irishman O'Neill (Michael Smiley) to help find a hoard of buried treasure in the field.

But nothing is what it seems, especially not O'Neill, and reality and fantasy blur and it descends into madness and absolute horror for our party. You can't blame Wheatley for wanting to do something different, and you can't get more different than this.

This is an insane film, and for a film done in a stark black and white, it has a horrific and haunting psychedelic montage at it's climax. It'll be interesting to see what Wheatley does for his next film.