A field in England - a new release strategy

[Moonbat]

Ben Wheatley's - A field in England was released yesterday in the cinema, on DVD and on Film 4. We didn't watch it as although I was mightily impressed by his film The Sightseers, I was left a bit annoyed with his film The Kill List and this new film seemed to be in that vein.
I'm wondering if anyone saw it and what they thought. My understanding is that it is a psychedelic tale based during the English civil war.

from IMDB

Fleeing for their lives, a small party abandon their Civil War confederates and escape through an overgrown field. Thinking only of what lay behind, they are ambushed by two dangerous men and made to search the field. Psychedelia, madness and chaotic forces slowly overtake the group as they question what treasure lies within the malignant field

Some great actors were in the cast including: Michael Smiley (Tyres from Spaced), Julian Barratt (from Mighty Boosh) and Reece Shearsmith (from League of Gentlemen).

 

[Foxbat]

Watched this on DVD. A field edged with magic mushrooms in the English Civil War, a shaman (or alchemist) of sorts, talk of buried treasure, some strobe lighting and a bit of brutality in a tent kind of sums it up.

It did the usual bit of leaving the viewer wondering what actually was real and what was the result of hullucinogenic fungus. It must be difficult to make a 90 minute movie set entirely in one field but it makes sense when dabbling in hallucinogenics....one field could appear to become the whole world. This whole scenario appeared to be an attempt to explore aspects of the human psyche.

I thought that technically, it was very well filmed and that monochrome really suited the whole setting of the film (I've always been a sucker for monochrome cloudscapes with good contrast).

Initially, the movie feels original but, in truth, other movies have tried similar things. The Civil War setting gave it a certain level of novelty but, ultimately, I found myself bored by the whole affair.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I watched the trailer and was left underwhelmed. It looked like a student film. The fact the trailer refused to allow any dialogue just gave the impression that character and story was not meant to be important. It may have been the wrong impression, but it's the one the trailer gave.

 

[Foxbat]

After watching an interview with the director, I think the 'student film' analogy is probably not far off the mark. Just as an example of what I mean: he said that they went on a recce for locations (with no script or idea in mind) - found the field and then decided to write a script using the field as the only location.

This very site has a 300 word writing challenge which would also be a good analogy - where an image is used to inspire a story.

Also, I was very taken by the visuals and it was interesting to find out in the interview how they were achieved.