A Field in England (2013)

-
If you like your 'war' films full of bish-bash-bosh then this isn't a film for you.

This is a film by Ben Wheatley (who is perhaps slightly more famous for doing J.G. Ballard's "High Rise" starring Tom Hiddleston).

Shot in monochrome, the film follows a small, disparate group of individuals who have fallen off the edge of a battle. But not deserters! They are going for a pint.


En route to the pub they stop and eat a mushroom stew, some of which have, shall we say magical properties.

They then set off to pull a rope, have a major group dynamic change, hunt for some treasure, and...

...but that would be telling.

Very sweary, some nudity.

An interesting film, I mean 'interesting' in a good way. So if you like your films more arthouse than Hollywood then you might enjoy this film.

If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memberships & Admission Fees

-
Image
As it will soon be ECWtravelogue season again, those of you heading out on an ECW 'tour', might be facing a raft of entrance fees, that can quickly begin to mount up. Here are some ways of possibly saving yourself some money. Prices are correct for 2026. Please note, none of these links are corporate links. I won't receive any commission if you click through. I have just gathered all this information together to help you save money. We'll start with the obvious ones. National Trust and English Heritage. Moreton Corbet Castle, cared for by English Heritage but free to visit The National Trust (NT) cares for many of the great houses in England. The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is the equivalent body north of the border (more on that later). Currently, individual membership is £96 for an individual, £160 for 2 adults, £168 for a family. The average cost of entry to a National Trust property seems to be about £16 for an adult, so if you plan to visit 6 properties (in...
Read more

The Army of the Covenant 1643-1647

-
Image
Stuart Reid's latest offering via Partizan Press is a regimental history of the Covenanting Armies. This hardback is beautifully presented, but appears to have been poorly proof read. There are a number of typos, which is beginning to be a little too familiar with books from the Partizan stable. For £35, I do expect a level of publishing professionalism that appears to be lacking here. Just because this is the output from a small, niche, publishing house, doesn't mean their customers deserve anything less than a polished, finished product. Small print runs inevitably push cover prices up, but that is no excuse for failing to get the basics right. Which takes away the shine from Stuart's work.  Clearly the subject will inevitably be measured against Professor Furgol's out of print Regimental History of the Covenanting Armies.  Furgol's work includes the Bishops' Wars, whereas this volume does not. Reid's work touches upon the Scottish New Model Army of 1647, ...
Read more

Rebellion and Retribution

-
Image
The latest offering from the FK&P* Celtic Fringe team giving us a scenario book. Firstly, as I've written before, I doff my cap to anyone bringing the Irish component of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms into the spotlight. Peter, Paul and Mary  Bill** please take a bow. They have given us eight fantastic scenarios; an introduction to the fighting on the emerald isle, including short biographies of the main protagonists; an excellent, albeit pricey, reading list; and possibly the first published on paper mention of the reincarnated BCW Project and Wiki (with the new URL). Battles covered are:- * Kilrush * Liscarroll * Benburb * Knocknanuss * Rathmines * Dungan's Hill * Ballinvegga * Glenmaquin Each scenario consists of: a detailed background to the battle; a briefing and deployment notes for each commander; specific rules that come into play for the scenario; army lists with FK&P stats; and, naturally, a map of the battlefield. As I have an allergy to grid based games, thi...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B ...
Read more

Painting Guide - Artillery

-
Image
 So I have pontificated about clothing colours (in general)... What Colours To Use? What Colours To Use Part 2: Paint ...regimental coat colours (or not)... Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 3: The Scots Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse The Trained Bands ...and equipment... Painting Guide - Equipment Only time before I looked at artillery. So here it is. A re-enactors' cannon ready to be fired Artillery pieces were expensive to produce, heavy and difficult to move around. The idea of using artillery in battle (rather than in a siege) was still in it's infancy. Guns were placed before the battle and pretty much stayed there win, lose or draw. Gunners were highly skilled individuals, many having learned their art on the continent during the Thirty Years War, and were often described as mercenaries employed by whomsoever paid the most rather than whose cause their hearts s...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 5: The Trained Bands

-
Image
As I was about to post about the Tower Hamlet's Regiment of the London Trained Bands, and about to go down my usual ranty rabbit hole about coat colours I thought it better to write a general post about Trained Bands. This got out of hand a little and became the coat colours series, without even touching upon the Trained Bands.  When I first started my ECW project I took at face value lots of information from what I believed to be 'trusted' sources: it only took a little  cursory reading to quickly realise that many of these 'trusted' sources replicate the same errors. Which is why my original Tower Hamlet's Regiment wore red coats and carried the 'wrong' flag. They were quickly given the correct flag, but the red coat issue was slowly nagging me. They have since been rechristened John Birch's, and the Tower Hamlets LTB has been raised anew. This post is a bit more than  Coat Colours Part 5 Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part ...
Read more

A Furtle in the Spares Box

-
Image
Having just had a reorganisation of my storage boxes, and realising that my two Scottish armies now had space... I resorted to going through my spares boxes in order to work out what purchases would be required to fill the newly found vacant space. A Freikorps Covenanter officer Might as well paint them up whilst I await the postie bearing packets of lead and freshly layered MDF. Inspired by my attention becoming very Scottish-centric over the last year or so, I have decided upon some more Covenanters. Command figures found for a new regiment of horse, and company of firelocks. Great, that saves a tenner. But what are these, lurking in the Celtic spares box? Two pack horses (for frame guns) and horse holders and a civilian woman.  Montrose's artillery park gets a 200% expansion, with just a pack of Scots artillery crew and a pair of custom casualty markers from Warbases needing to be purchased. Only problem was that the 'woman' is actually a monk. Something I only realised ...
Read more

Colonel Philip O’Reilly of Ballynacargy’s Troop of Horse

-
Image
Somehow, despite the best efforts of real life trying to hinder my painting of little men, I've managed to make some more progress on my Catholic Confederation army. Here's the second of two units of cavalry. Philip MacHugh O'Reilly was the son of Hugh O'Reilly of Ballynacargy, County Cavan, and Katherine MacMahon. The family were deemed to be one of the ‘deserving’ native Irish families whose land was not taken during the Ulster plantation. Not to be confused with Hugh O'Reilly, the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh. Contemporary sources refer to him as a lawyer, but there's no existing evidence of him having attended Inns of Court in England. He may well have received legal training on the Continent, prior to accepting a command in the French army.  Philip inherited the family estate on his return to Ireland. He would play an active role in local politics, holding a number of important roles, before being elected as MP for County Cavan in the 1640 parliament. As M...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse

-
Image
Welcome to part 4 of my coat colours series. I had originally planned to write blog entries on the New Model Army, Regiments of Dragoons, and Regiments of Horse but, as you'll see those pages would be pretty sparse and barren. The rest of my coat colour posts are here: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   And if you are stuck wondering how to convert this information into what colours to use and what model paint colours , the links might help you start. Parliamentarian Regiments of Dragoons Colonel Richard Browne Red November 1642 ( National Archive SP28/144/pt2/28-35 ) Grey 1645 (National Archive 144/2 f30r; British Library MS Add 18982 f409v) Parliamentarian Regiments of Horse   There are a number of records detailing the issue of helmets, back and breas...
Read more

Limbers

-
Image
We all have these 'I could just...' ideas about our toy soldiers which usually involve buying even more shiny things™. There's a couple of *big* thoughts kicking around my head (my RoF really need a third line of musketeers, and surely I need to represent my dragoons mounted too) which get beaten with a metaphorical big stick every time they start making any sort of noise. Recently a new 'I could just...' thought appeared, and before I could find the metaphorical big stick, I had placed two small orders. Jings and crivens*. My armies field three types of artillery - light, medium and heavy (not including frame guns, or the solitary shared siege mortar). Each gun has its own limber. Light guns have a Naismith limber pulled by two horses. Medium and heavy guns have Museum Miniatures limbers and a four horse team. My 'I could just...' thought didn't like medium and heavy guns having the same limber. It argued that heavy guns needed more horses. by Jean Théo...
Read more