By ANDY GILCHRIST
Arts Editor
Films that take place in just one location are very difficult to pull off. Poor writing, directing, and/or acting can quickly take watching the film from enjoyable to painful. But when it’s done right, such as in a film like 12 Angry Men, it produces a film that’s tense, affecting, and leaves you thinking about it days after the credits roll.
A Field in England is such a film. By utilizing everything available to an extremely low-budget movie, the filmmakers have created a hyperreal mind-blowing trip of a film that, though confusing at times, leaves an impression on the viewer that isn’t quick to disappear.
The film follows three deserters of a battle of the English Civil War in the 1640s. These men, Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith), Jacob (Peter Ferdinando), and Friend (Richard Glover), escape to a wide open field, where they meet a traveler named Cutler (Ryan Pope). As they walk across the field in search of an ale house, the four men encounter an alchemist named O’Neill (Michael Smiley). To reveal what happens next would spoil the film’s first of many twists, but the film continues to show truly maddening events including digging for buried treasure, eating hallucinogenic mushrooms, and perhaps even a trip to Hell itself.
The film is the latest project from the twisted mind of Ben Wheatley. His fourth film in five years, Wheatley has developed a pattern in his short career of alternating between black comedies and dark, cerebral dramas. The gangster comedy Down Terrace was followed by the creepy hitman head trip Kill List, while the serial killer road movie Sightseers has now been followed by A Field in England.
Wheatley’s films always feature a high level of violence and profanity, acted out by quirky and off-beat characters, almost all of whom meet a tragic end. This is true of his latest film as well, where, despite taking place in the seventeenth century, the characters use modern language and swear words. But this is not a film dedicated to historical accuracy; it is a film that uses the lore of medieval sorcery to lure in viewers, then plays with their brains in weird ways.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the film is that it’s as good as it is despite its low budget. In an era where studios are shelling out over $100 million for several movies a year, and even independent films cost several million, it’s refreshing to see a great film with a budget in the six-digit range. Costing approximately half a million dollars, the film takes advantage of the little money available to create a film that’s more tense than exciting. Shot entirely in the one titular field in black and white, Wheatley puts the film entirely in the hands of his actors and they do not disappoint.
But the main draw of the film is its psychedelic nature. Early on in the film, the characters stop to make a mushroom stew; of course, they’re actually hallucinogenic mushrooms. Following this meal, many weird occurrences happen, such as characters getting sick, coming across the alchemist O’Neill, and an inexplicable black circle appearing in the sky.
Later, Whitehead stumbles upon a chain of the fungus in the tall grass and, already losing his mind, grabs them by the handful and stuffs them in his mouth. As he chews, the weather changes rapidly and a wind storm overtakes the field. What follows next is a strobe-like sequence where split second edits cut between the remaining characters all caught in the wind, glimpses of the past and the future, and other bizarre visions. By simply using quick cuts and natural weather, Wheatley manages to create the feeling of a drug trip without having to consume anything. It makes the film not just another movie, it makes it an experience.
But what make this movie especially memorable are the multiple layers the film has. While it appears to be the simple story of five men stuck in a field searching for treasure on the surface, the film might actually mean so much more. Towards the end of the first act, the four men find a rope tied to a post just lying in the field. They decide to pull on the rope to see what’s on the other side. Inexplicably, they cannot move the rope, so they decide to just walk to the end of it, where they find… O’Neill the alchemist.
How is this possible? Have they pulled O’Neill out of some other dimension and back into our own? Have they rescued him from Hell? But upon further inspection, the scene is cut to make it look like the four men are being pulled by the rope. Does that mean they are in Hell? Purgatory? Is O’Neill a demon? Or worse, the Devil?
Like his previous mindbender Kill List, the film becomes more and more complex the more one thinks about it, to the point where a field becomes Hell itself. If we reexamine the film in this way, then each character changes drastically and the film’s final scene becomes much more powerful. Or maybe they’re all just high.
A Field in England is violent, funny, and very strange. It emphasizes tone and characterization over historical accuracy, creating a film that almost defies categorization. Because of its low budget, black and white cinematography, quirkiness, and psychedelic imagery, the film seems destined to become a cult classic to be loved by viewers for decades.
