Comrades [DVD] [1986]

Bill Douglas always went his own way in making films, caring little for fashion or convention. So the first thing that strikes the viewer of Comrades is the strangeness of the technique - long slow shots, silences, abrupt transitions, and above all, the decision to present the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs as if it was a sort of lantern-show. But allow the film-maker his licence to work magic - and yes, the magic does work! This piece of cinematography grips and carries you into the experience of these men and their families, especially their sense of being made to feel social outcasts simply for standing up for their basic rights, in a way that few other films succeed in doing.

Working class filmmaker Bill Douglas followed his much lauded autobiographical trilogy with this British Film Council funded poor man's epic about the Tolpuddle Martyrs and their struggle to establish an early trade union that was a worthy winner of the BFI Sutherland Trophy and a fitting final film for the director.

Soans puts in a strong central performance with able support from Gaminara, Bateman, Davis, Flynn and a roguish Allen, whilst Hordern, Jones, Fox, Windsor, Redgrave and an astonishing debut performance Staunton rounds out the cast and the omnipresent Norton fills in everything else.

The director retells the tale on a grand scale breathing new life into the story with atmospheric locations that perfectly capture rural Dorset and colonial Australia whilst remembering his own place as the story teller, in the form of the lanternist and his bag of tricks, and never loosing the central message of the union movement.

Remember thine end.

The BFI seems to have taken it upon themselves to remind us of our Working-class history this month. Along with Brownlow and Mollo's superlative "Winstanley" (1975), "Comrades" turns our attention to another piece of semi-socilaist history; That of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, seven men who created a "Friendly Society" to protest the lowering of general wages during the early 1830s. Although the Combination Acts of 1824/5 legalised what we would consider to be a Trade Union, landowner James Frampton incurred an old 18th-Century act against illegal oaths to have the men arrested, tried and deported to Australia. The men bar one were released in 1836 and moved to London, Ontario. Their trials and tribulations remain in the forefront of the history of rights in the UK, and they deserve an appropriate film to celebrate them.

So how does Bill Douglas's film stand up to scrutiny? Douglas had already completed his Childhood trilogy ("My Childhood" (1972), "My Ain Folk" (1973) and "My Way Home" (1978)) which put him in good stead to write and direct a working-class hero themed film. And yes, in most aspects the man succeeded. An admirable cast which feature such mainstays as Keith Allen, James Fox and Freddie Jones accurately portray the wronged men, and although the cinematography sometimes degenerates into Chocolate-Box gaudiness (Was it an attempt to do a Terence Malick?) the colours are vivid and the contrast between rainy Dorset and parched New South Wales is masterfully portrayed. And yes, the inevitable Romanticism does ooze through at points in order to stir emotion, it's mostly tastefully done and at a low budget. Bravo.

What of the package? Hell, this is the BFI and they never ever do things in halves (Bless them). Spread across two discs you have the documentaries "Lanterna Magica - Bill Douglas and the Secret History of Cinema" and "Visions of Comrades", Michael Alexander's "Home and Away" that was scripted by Douglas. Added to this are interviews and a lavish booklet containing essasy regarding Douglas and the film. I cannot recommend this highly enough. If you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth (and who the Hell is?) you owe it to yourself to watch how the rights you take for granted materialised. Not out of thin air, let me tell you that.