Winstanley (film)

Last updated

Winstanley
Winstanley 1975 film poster.jpg
Directed by Kevin Brownlow
Andrew Mollo
Written by David Caute (novel)
Kevin Brownlow
Produced by Andrew Mollo
Kevin Brownlow
Starring Miles Halliwell
Cinematography Ernest Vincze
Edited bySarah Ellis
Music by Sergei Prokofiev
Production
company
British Film Institute Production Board
Release date
  • 1975 (1975)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Winstanley is a 1975 British black-and-white film directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo and starring Miles Halliwell and Terry Higgins. [1] It was written by David Caute and Brownlow based on Caute's 1961 novel Comrade Jacob. [2] It was produced by the British Film Institute Production Board, and is about social reformer and writer Gerrard Winstanley.

Contents

Plot

The film details the story of the 17th-century social reformer and writer Gerrard Winstanley, who, along with a small band of followers known as the Diggers, tried to establish a self-sufficient farming community on common land at St George's Hill ("Diggers' Hill") near Cobham, Surrey. The community was one of the world's first small-scale experiments in socialism or communism, and its ideas were copied elsewhere in England during the time of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, but it was quickly suppressed, and in the end left only a legacy of ideas to inspire later generations of socialist theorists.

Cast

Production

Armour used was real armour from the 1640s, borrowed from the Tower of London. [3] [4] Real-life activist Sid Rawle played a Ranter (i.e. a member of one or other of several English Revolution-period anarchist-type groups).

Reception

In The Monthly Film Bulletin Tom Milne wrote: "What makes the film difficult (apparently) is its elliptical approach to narrative, with cause and effect implied rather than stated, so that despite all the action and reaction, the overall impression is a sense of total stasis in which the precise historical moment for Utopia is allowed to pass." [5]

Home media

The film was reissued on DVD and Blu-ray in 2009 by the British Film Institute (BFI), which had funded the original project. [2]

References

  1. ↑ "Winstanley". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
  2. 1 2 "Winstanley on DVD and Blu-Ray" . Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "Winstanley and the Historical Film: An Interview with Kevin Brownlow" (PDF). Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  4. ↑ Gardiner, David. "Winstanley". Mindspring Reviews. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Winstanley". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 43 (504): 90. 1 January 1976. ProQuest   1305827232.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.