6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
During the English Civil War, a group of deserters are captured by a mysterious alchemist named O'Neil, who forces them to search for a treasure that is believed to be hidden in a field. Feeding on the abundant mushrooms in the English countryside, they descend into psychological turmoil and begin to suspect that the treasure they have been seeking may be something else altogether.
Starring: Julian Barratt, Michael Smiley, Reece Shearsmith, Peter Ferdinando, Ryan PopeHorror | 100% |
Drama | 58% |
Surreal | 15% |
Psychological thriller | 14% |
Period | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Not DD Mono; cover art is in error.
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy (as download)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A Field in England is the fourth feature from British director Ben Wheatley, a filmmaker so distinctive that his work is impossible to categorize and resists easy comparison to anyone else working today. In a previous film, Kill List (2011), Wheatley combined elements of a crime picture, a con story, a horror flick and a mystical Celtic folk tale (the really bloody kind), but he seems to have perfected the trick of bypassing narrative exposition and burrowing straight into the viewer's subconscious. As with dreams, you can feel the coherence of his films, but you can't explain it. At his best, he achieves the same impact as David Lynch, and like Lynch, Wheatley tinkers with identity, causation and chronology, while using both sound and image to disorient the viewer. The result can be exhilarating. It can also be frustrating as hell. Wheatley got the idea for A Field in England after shooting documentary footage of battle re-enactments by a British historical group called The Sealed Knot. Much like Civil War re-enactment societies in the United States, The Sealed Knot stages battles from the 17th Century English conflict between Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads and King Charles I's Cavaliers. Ever the thrifty independent producer, Wheatley conceived of a story set in the shadow of that conflict and played out within a single setting. The script that eventually emerged is credited to Wheatley's wife and producing partner, Amy Jump, but the story retains many familiar elements from Wheatley's prior films, especially the interest in magic. Given its origins, you might think that A Field in England is a historical drama. You would be mistaken.
Wheatley and his regular cinematographer, Laurie Rose, shot A Field in England in lustrous black-and-white using two digital cameras, a Canon C300 and a Red Epic, equipped with a variety of lenses, some of them homemade and deliberately designed to introduce distortion. (These effects are discussed in the extras.) Post-production was completed on a digital intermediate, from which Drafthouse Films' 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced. The portions filmed with professional lenses, which are most of the film, are sharp, clean and noiseless, with deep blacks and beautifully delineated shades of gray that bring out all the fine detail in the matted whiskers, grimy faces, period attire and muddy surroundings. Shots of the field's grass waving in the wind are exquisite, as are various still tableaux of the men that were suggested to Wheatley by antique woodcuts. The deliberately distorted shots include a recurrent effect in which the camera pushes up against a character's face until it distorts, and everything behind its drops out of focus. It's an unsettling effect that suggests madness. Although I have included a few frames from the strobing "psychedelic sequence", stills cannot convey its visual texture. The sequence depends on rapid cuts, sometimes after a single frame, for its impact. Given the kinetic nature of various sequences, the average bitrate of 24.99 Mbps might seem low, but the sections with numerous edits are balanced by an equal number of relatively static shots. The letterbox bars, B&W photography and digital origination also allow for a lower average bitrate, although the rate spikes up dramatically in specific passages.
The film's 5.1 soundtrack, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA, is elaborately edited and carefully constructed. In the early sequences, when Whitehead and the soldiers are still near the battle, cannon balls fire over their heads and whistle from behind until they land with a blast somewhere to the front left or right. One such explosion temporarily knocks out Whitehead's hearing, so that sounds barely penetrate the ringing. (A comparable effect was used during the Omaha Beach landing in Saving Private Ryan.) Later, when the four men wander off on their own, they encounter the sounds of nature: wind, birds, rustling grass, insects. In O'Neil's domain, strange and often unidentifiable noises intrude, which may be the effects of mushroom consumption or may be something else. (A prolonged episode of screaming—off camera—is unnerving.) The discharge of muskets and pistols strike with appropriate impact, and an intense wind that sweeps over the fields is heard as well as felt. The track's dynamic range is wide, and bass extension is deep and powerful. If you have a good subwoofer, expect to rattle any loose objects. The musical score by Jim Williams (another of Wheatley's regular collaborators) uses period instruments to complement the costumes and speech, but Williams also incorporates synthesizer elements that blend with the sound effects to the point where it can be hard to tell them apart. The dialogue is clear, but the regional accents are thick and, especially in the absence of any exposition to provide context, some of the exchanges may be difficult for an American ear to grasp. Don't hesitate to make use of the subtitles.
A Field in England is a unique and memorable experience, but like many of the films released by Drafthouse, it isn't for everyone. If you sit down to watch it, don't expect to receive a clear resolution or to understand at the end what O'Neil was after or who Whitehead is—indeed, who any of the five main characters are. Above all, do not labor under the illusion that somewhere out there lies a magic decoder ring that assembles all the puzzle pieces and reveals the secret hidden beneath the riddles. Wheatley does not make films to be "solved". He makes them to be experienced. Drafthouse has provided their usual first-rate treatment. With all appropriate warnings, highly recommended.
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