Winstanley

Gerrard Winstanley (1609 – 1676) was an English Protestant religious reformer and political activist during the period after the English Civil Wat under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He was one of the leaders of a movement which called itself the True Levellers, was known by others as the Diggers, and could be characterised as a form of Christian Communism.

This little-known and well-intentioned film about the radical movement - directed and co-written by Kevin Brownlow - will not be to all tastes. Visually, it reminds one of the best of early cinema such as that of Eisenstein: 4:3 ratio, black and white, distant shots of figures, close up shots of faces, a variety of framed shots. And it is a vivid and authentic reaction of the period. But much of the acting is very amateurish and there is a lack of both characterisation and narrative.

During the 17th century, Gerrard Winstanley, a bankrupt English merchant and social reformer, organizes one of the first communes to be established in the Western world along with a small band of followers known as the Diggers. Filmed in black and white, and using a cast made up mainly of amateurs, including real life activist Sid Rawle who plays a Ranter (English Revolution period anarchist-type group). it is based on the 1961 David Caute novel Comrade Jacob, and the armour used was actual armour from the 1640s, borrowed from the Tower of London. An influential film that has inspired modern day films such as A Field in England.

A great piece of independent filmmaking!Intelligent,well directed and acted.These two filmmakers had a ton of talent .Too bad they only made two films,but luckily they are both classics.This film is very much like an early Kubrick film i.e. 'The Killing'.The locations and the fact that the were lensed on a monochrome made me feel the landscapes, situations and the plight of the people.A must see for any film lover!!!

Today the term "indie film" is a bloated cliché, misapplied to any movie with a budget under $50 million and not too much CGI, regardless of how conventional and hackneyed the film is. To see really independent cinema you have to go back to the 60s and 70s, when revolutions in the technology allowed eccentrics and visionaries, working totally outside the industry and with virtually no money, to make truly unique movies. Folks like Warhol and Waters and Anger in the US, Herzog in Germany, and the team of Brownlow and Mollo in the UK. All very different from one another (and everyone else), which is part of what makes them authentic independents. Starting when they were just 18, Brownlow and Mollo made two extraordinary history-based films. First they spent eight years (and something like 20,000 pounds, minuscule even in 1970s currency) making "It Happened Here," a what-if fantasy about England occupied by the Nazis during World War II that looks so realistic you could be fooled it's a documentary if you're history-challenged. Then, with an equally tiny budget and fierce attention to detail, they made the true-to-history "Winstanley," about the proto-democracy (and proto-Quaker, and proto-hippie) revolt of the Diggers, Levellers and Ranters in 17th-century England. Again it looks so real it's like a documentary somehow shot in the 1640s, but it's also beautiful, poetic and philosophical in a kind of Herzogian way. They're both remarkable little films, unlike anything else, that should be remedial must-see's for anyone who likes or is involved in what's called indie film nowadays.

Wonderful film. Cinematogaphy is brilliant. Story is one long overdue in telling (few people knew of the diggers prior to this film, outside of a small alternative community). Memorable scenes, such as the crossroads confrontation between the Puritan parson and Winstanley. The battle scenes at the start are artfully, sparingly, and convincingly drawn.

Winstanley himself may come off as a bit saintly, but he's nonetheless compelling, and a good choice for the role (he was a schoolteacher by trade and amateur actor). The attention to historical detail borders on the fanatical, and is well worth watching. And much of the dialogue is drawn from actual writings of Winstanley himself.