THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE PRESENTS: AKENFIELD. (1974) BASED ON THE BESTSELLING BOOK BY RONALD BLYTHE CALLED 'AKENFIELD: PORTRAIT OF AN ENGLISH VILLAGE.'
DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY PETER HALL.
PRODUCED AND EDITED BY REX PYKE. MADE BY PEOPLE OF SUFFOLK.
STARRING GARROW SHAND, PEGGY COLE,
BARBARA TILNEY AND LYN BROOKS.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This is a marvellous film with an
unforgettable back-story. I can't believe it's only coming to my
attention now, some forty-four years after it was made. You'd think a
film like this would be better-known than it apparently is, but in fact the
opposite is actually the case.
This little-seen gem of a movie is out
now in a Dual Format Edition (DVD and BLU-RAY) thanks
to the wonderful folk at the
British Film Institute,
who obviously thought it was about time that it was introduced
to a new and wider audience. Hear hear, as they say.
Having seen the film for myself now and
watched a number of the extra features, including wonderful
interviews with the writer, the director, the producer and the
leading man, I thoroughly approve of their decision. Now let's see
what it's all about, shall we?
The narrator of the film is an old man called Tom Rouse,
whose funeral is about to take place when we, the viewers, come in.
In fact, all the action takes place over the course of this one day,
but there are also flashbacks to Tom's earlier life too. Let me
explain.
There are three 'Toms' in the
film, each played by the one man, Garrow Shand. Tom Rouse from the
present day (the 'late Sixties or early 'Seventies) is
a farm-hand who's bored to death of his narrow little life in his
narrow little house in the narrow little country village of
Akenfield.
He's so
fed-up he's actually thinking of jacking it all in and going to
Australia, much to the distress of his middle-aged widowed mother and
his school-teacher girlfriend, Jean. On the day of his grandfather's
funeral, Tom wanders around the village in a reflective kind of a way,
thinking things over and being confronted at every turn by visions of
his dead grandfather as a young lad, doing the things that young
farmhands used to do in the first half of the century. Believe me
when I tell you that life was no picnic back then...
Garrow Shand,
an actual real life farm-hand himself at the time and not an actor at all, also
plays his grand-dad as a young fellow and he even plays his own father, who died in
World War Two and whom he never knew. This is how his mum came to be
bringing young Tom up on her own.
The amazing
thing about the film is that none of the cast are professional
actors, just nice ordinary local Suffolk folk who'd lived there all
their lives. That being the case, the whole film has the air almost
of a documentary, so real and natural are the performances and also
the dialogue. The writer
Ronald Blythe actually plays the vicar in the film, which is such a
lovely personal touch.
The
point of the grandfather's narrative is to tell both the viewer and
his modern-day grandson that
farming, especially for someone else and on
a farm you'll never inherit, is a tough arduous life and
almost a mug's game.
He talks about how it wears down the body and
your physical strength until you've no energy left for anything else.
He describes a life more or less devoid of pleasures but filled to
the brim with hard back-breaking graft and financial worries. Is he warning his grandson off making a
lifelong career out of being a farm-hand himself?
We see Tom (the grandfather), a
veteran of World War One, marrying a young housemaid whom he's tumbled
in the bushes of the 'Big House' even
before he gets the ring on her finger. They celebrate their wedding
night on the same night the year's harvest is completed but sadly,
Tom can't keep his eyes open long enough to properly consummate the
marriage and Charlotte's good nightie goes to waste, at least for
now...!
Their married
life is undoubtedly tougher than they'd expected. They row over money
in a cramped living space while the baby cries incessantly and Tom's
not above dishing out the odd slap to his complaining missus when her
moaning becomes too much to bear. It all seems about par for
the
course, really, doesn't it, or am I just being horribly cynical...?
If the
modern-day Tom marries Jean, his life won't be much different to his grandfather's. He
already has a similar grudging, almost resentful relationship with
his old mum whom he lives with and who grumbles night and day about
everything under the sun while Tom mostly ignores her. It's not a
very close, loving relationship. It's almost a dead cert that a marriage to Jean will only cause history to be repeated.
Should
young Tom follow in his grandfather's footsteps and stay in the same
place his whole life? Or should he take the older Tom's advice
(admittedly from beyond the grave!) and
get out there and see the world?
Or
would that be the coward's way out, leaving his mother and fiancée
in the lurch while he gallivants
around Australia living the life of Reilly, whoever that might be?
It's Tom's choice. He seems like the kind of guy who'd put his own
needs before those of others, so we'll just have to wait and see what
he comes up with.
The scenery in the film is utterly gorgeous. There are acres and acres of peaceful green English fields on display, along with beautiful trees and skies and miles and miles of verdant hedgerows. The film itself has been lovingly restored by the BFI National Archive and it just looks fantastic, even today, four decades later. 'Oh, to be in England...!' Whoever said that, it's obvious what he meant. This quiet little village in Suffolk fits the bill exactly.
Akenfield
in Grand-dad Tom's day was like this charming, peaceful little rural
idyll but there was a bit of a sting beneath all the beauty. Poverty,
the binding ties of marriage and children, two world wars and the
endless grind on the farm tended to undermine that beauty and eat
away at it like acid. Tom the Elder broke his back, figuratively
speaking, working on another man's farm nearly his whole life.
Clearly he feels that his grandson shouldn't make the same mistakes
his Grand-dad did...
The scenery in the film is utterly gorgeous. There are acres and acres of peaceful green English fields on display, along with beautiful trees and skies and miles and miles of verdant hedgerows. The film itself has been lovingly restored by the BFI National Archive and it just looks fantastic, even today, four decades later. 'Oh, to be in England...!' Whoever said that, it's obvious what he meant. This quiet little village in Suffolk fits the bill exactly.
Key
scenes include the incredible opening conversation between Tom and
his mum and also the 'waiting for the funeral cars' scene
which feels so real it could actually be real,
if you know what I mean. Find out what a rainy day can mean for a
farmhand who desperately needs his day's pay, and learn also which
single possession means so much to Tom the Elder that he's prepared
to-ahem- show his willy to get it back...!
Also
check out the grim schoolroom scene and the one scene in the film in
which the disturbing chasm between the rich landowners and the poor
farm-hands is highlighted. This last scene is superbly done, to the
point where it sent an actual shiver frisson-ing
down my spine.
I loved
the interview with the still handsome Garrow Shand in which he
laughingly admits leaving his real-life work van around the
village during filming to get a bit of exposure and publicity for his
business as a farmhand-for-hire.
He's so lovely and down-to-earth about
his unexpected transition from farmer to actor and then back to
farmer again, though of course nowadays he's got his own business
and people work for him, which
is nice to know.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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