Culloden (film)

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Culloden
Directed by Peter Watkins
Written by Peter Watkins
Cinematography Dick Bush
Editing by Michael Bradsell
Release date(s) December 15, 1964 (UK)
Running time 69 min
Country UK
Language English, Scottish Gaelic
IMDb profile

Culloden is a docudrama written and directed by Peter Watkins for BBC TV and originally broadcast on December 15, 1964. It portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden that resulted in the destruction of the Jacobite uprising by the British Army, and, in the words of the narrator "tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands". Described in its opening credits as "an account of one of the most mishandled and brutal battles ever fought in Britain", Culloden was hailed as a breakthrough for its cinematography as well as its use of non-professional actors and its presentation of an historical event in the style of modern TV war reporting. The film was based on John Prebble's study of the battle.

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[edit] Style

Culloden was Watkins' first full-length film. It was also his first use of his docudrama style in which actors portray historical characters being interviewed by filmmakers on the scene, "as though it was happening in front of news cameras".[citation needed] The US army was "pacifying" Vietnam at that time, and Watkins was motivated to "draw a parallel between these events and what had happened in our own UK Highlands two centuries earlier". The docudrama technique was intended to be "deliberately reminiscent of scenes from Vietnam which were appearing on TV at that time."[citation needed]

Watkins also "wanted to break through the conventional use of professional actors in historical melodramas, with the comfortable avoidance of reality that these provide, and to use amateurs - ordinary people - in a reconstruction of their own history." He accordingly used an all-amateur cast from London and the Scottish Lowlands for the royalist forces, and people from Inverness for the clan army. This later became a central technique of Watkins' filmmaking.

[edit] Awards and recognition

Culloden won both the Society of Film and Television Arts BBC Award of Merit and the British Screenwriters' Award of Merit in 1965. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Culloden was placed 64th.

[edit] Production Crew

  • Production Design - Anne Davey, Colin MacLeod, Brendon Woods
  • Makeup artist - Ann Brodie
  • Sound Department - John Gatland, Lou Hanks
  • Production Unit - Rodney Barnes, Valerie Booth, Roger Higham, Jennifer Howie, Michael Powell
  • Historical advisor - John Prebble
  • Production unit - Geraldine Proudfoot, Geoff Sanders
  • Battle coordinator - Derek Ware

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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