User Reviews

Honestly, I landed on the film last night, browsing titles on Netflix, because of Lily James - having known nothing else about the film from before (I usually skip trailers these days), but that she was in the cast was a huge draw for me - and found immense pleasure in this gem of a film. From Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes to Ben Chaplin and Archie Barnes, the performances are all first-rate. The real-life story is told with great finesse, and filmed earnestly with a keen eye for production details. I have to say, even some of the lesser moments from the film shall stay with me for long, its appeal is that strong.

An intriguing little piece of British history, The Dig tells a slow-burning story with understated and genuine drama throughout, turning what could have been a rather dry tale of archaeology into a genuinely gripping character drama. Its historical context takes a little while to become fully relevant, but ultimately, The Dig really proves itself as a captivating watch.

One of the things that I really liked about The Dig was its patience. Never dragging yet never rushing, the film takes its time to build up all of its main strengths, from its characters, their emotional back stories, and the overarching historical context of the outbreak of World War II.

Complete with elegant camerawork, a beautiful score and impressively atmospheric direction that makes it an eye-catching watch from the first few moments, The Dig has enough confidence and depth to keep you engrossed even if its story isn't advancing apace, something that's a lot harder to pull off than you may think.

One of the big reasons that the film's patient pacing and style work so well is because of its understated, genuine drama. With calm yet fully convincing performances across the board, particularly from Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, this isn't a showy period drama by any means, but eases you into a story about real people, making them the centre of attention far more than the historical significance of the event.

I'm not particularly well-versed in archaeology, and I didn't know about this discovery before watching this film. I think that might be the case for many other people, but the great thing about The Dig is that it's primarily a character-driven drama, and one that uses emotional intrigue to bring you closer to the story at hand and allow you to appreciate its importance.

One element where the film does seem to falter is in its use of the historical backdrop of the lead-up to World War II. Set in the summer months of 1939 before the outbreak of war, there are sporadic references to the coming conflict through the first two acts of the movie, but they don't seem to bear much relevance to this story about an archaeological find.

However, the film slowly begins to unveil how the historical context plays into its characters' personal lives and the fate of the dig itself, with dramatic focus shifting significantly in the final act, but just at the right point that the sudden arrival of the war into everyday life feels just like what it would have been like to experience it first-hand, taking over everything seemingly normal in an instant.

As a result, while the historical backdrop seems almost contrived at first, it really comes good as the film progresses, another demonstration of how the patience of The Dig really plays into its hands throughout.

So rare to watch a wonderfully gentle but poignant film. It tugs at the emotions as it tells a largely true. Some liberties are taken with the truth but largely accurate. The real story of Peggy Piggott is fascinating and worth a film in itself. However the real stars of the story are Edith Pretty and Basil Brown portrayed brilliantly by Mulligan and Fiennes. One small criticism is that Carey Mulligan is too young for the part but she carries it off superbly and the performance by Ralph Fiennes is one of the best I have seen in a long time. The whole cast is superb and the backdrop of imminent war is ever present throughout the film. I have visited Sutton Hoo a number of times and studied the excavation and I still marvel at the work Basil Brown did. As an archaeologist myself I can say his work even by today's standards was of the highest order. Many of the academic archaeologists before and after WW2 were useless when it came to excavation and recording it. Basil Brown did everything right and it is fantastic he is at last getting the credit he deserved and that Edith Pretty wanted for him. It is to the great shame of the academic establishment it has taken so long. The film portrays this extremely well.

I was excited to see a film that portrays 1930's England, and Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan are proven actors that bring a unique presence to their films. Archeology might be a tough sell for the premise of a film and it was these actors that drew me in. The first half gets it so right, it's just about the time period and characters digging while becoming excited as they unearth the past, it's rather simple yet these actors have no trouble keeping you interested. In fact it was refreshing to see English people presented on screen becoming excited over finding evidence of their ancestors and past to this ancient land given the current hostile attitude towards the English and Celtic peoples by particular political groups and media companies who like to remind us we have little culture and heritage.

Then suddenly it's as if the writers thought viewers would become bored and in comes a new character, a rather modern-behaving "liberated" female with her controlling husband, inserted into the plot to remind us how women should really behave in the current age as if we needed reminding. The key characters become background noise, and you have this love triangle develop, the film takes on a different purpose, I'd rather see more character development between the man who discovered the relics and the museum trying to take credit from the little man.

I was very much looking forward to this movie. The prospect of a film based on the discovery of Sutton Hoo, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, sounds like the perfect combination. And it starts out promisingly, with wonderfully rich period detail and stunning scenery. It becomes clear at once that this is a movie for the patient viewer, with its deliberate English dramatic pacing. Where it began to fall short, for me, is when it became apparent that there was going to be very little done with the fact that Sutton Hoo is perhaps the most significant archaeological site in Britain and its discovery and what was learned from it is an amazing tale. Some of that could have been woven into the narrative, just a bit. Otherwise, there was very little interpretive value in the film, and while it is a drama, the stories of the main characters, which are told with a bit of artistic license, are not very compelling or interesting. The side plots of minor characters even less so. The magnitude of the discovery, to me, was not successfully conveyed in this movie, which is a shame. In the end, it is a good British period drama with solid acting, adequate writing, high production values and beautiful cinematography, that just never quite gets to the point it should and could have. For folks who are not fans of British slow burn television, it will be mind-numbingly boring.

This is a very good movie..if you see the picture from the outside you'll say it's a story about an Archeologist and his historically important excavation..but if you dig deeper you'll find a lot of potential in what the movie is trying to tell you. The relationships between us and the people we love,the people we don't even know..heck between people in general and how it's important to a human being..but that comes with a misunderstandings and conflicts and this happening in a time of war and how that is affecting them..all this has been told in an amazing dramatic way of Brasil Brown who discovered and excavated one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time of course with that being the main story. The acting by Carey Mulligan was magnificent and Ralph Fiennes was the one for this role and their performance was the outstanding thing in the whole movie. Another thing was good is the editing..they've done a tremendous job and it was really worth the effort to come up with something like this. Although sometimes there are some side stories that you'll find yourself not that interested in them too much,and the storytelling could seem very slow at some points..also there's ups and downs like any other movie. Overall great movie,worth watching and i suggest you to see it.

There are so many really good things about this movie, such a great piece of story telling. The cast is excellent and all put in great performances, especially Lily James and Ralph Fiennes. It's not just about an archaeological dig though, it's about past lives, present lives and how things are remembered in the future. There are also several strands to the relationships between all invloved too, including working relationships, family relationships, class and secret relationships. I don't know how much of the story is fiction or fact but it is well told either way. All this set with a backdrop of the coming second world war. I am lucky enough to have seen the Sutton Hoo treasures at the British Museum and have always been keenly interested in archeology so this film based on the true story of this discovery was right up my street.

"The Dig" (2021 release from the UK; 112 min.) reminds us at the very beginning that this is "Based On a True Story". We then go to "Suffolk, England, 1939" as Basil Brown arrives at the house of Edith Pretty. Turns out Mrs. Pretty has hired Mr. Brown to do some archeological work on her estate. Her young son excitedly asks Mr. Brown "Are you going to dig upo the mountain?". Mr. Brown, taking room and pension at Mrs. Ptretty's house, starts to dig and soon is working his way towards some intriguing finds... At this point we are 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is directed by little known Australian director Simon Stone ("The Daughter)". Here he brings us a historical drama about what later became known as the Sutton Hoo treasure, one of the biggest archeological finds in British history. The setting of 1939 is pivotal in several ways: of course the threat of WWII is in the air, but even more important, the way of life in those days was just entirely different, and being in a remote English area (near Ipswich) only reinfornces that. So be prepated for a slow moving film, I didn't mind it one bit. Even more critical for the movie is Carey Mulligan's exquisite lead performance. Playing a person who is more than 20 years her senior in real life (Carey is 35, Mrs, Pretty was in her mid-50s in 1939), she does so with grace and style and presence. The role couldn't be more different from what Carey did in the recently released "Promising Young Woman", which was in my top 3 of the bests films of 2020. Ralph Fiennes is equally great as the excavator Mr. Brown. Last but not least there is a wonderful orchestral score by Stefan Gregory, who I must admit was previously unknown to me.

"The Dig" opened last weekend in select theaters for a short run before then moving on to Netflix. (Seems like every other new theatrical release these days follows that pattern....) Thankfully the film opened at my art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The early Satruday evening screening where I saw this at was attended so-so (exactly 5 people including myself). Never mind. If you are in the mood for a good ol' fashioned hisstorical drama featuring outstanding performances from Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you still can), on VOD< or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

There is a lot I can say about this film, but I'll keep it short. If you love simple stories being told in a beautiful and clear manner, and if you like Archaeology, then this is the film for you. All of the actors have done a wonderful job.

The Dig (2021) was directed by Simon Stone. It stars Carey Mulligan as Edith Pretty. Mrs. Pretty is a widow who lives on a large estate. She is convinced that there's something of archeological significance on her property. She employ Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate one of the burial mounds. Brown is a skilled and experienced excavator, but he has no formal academic training. The result of his efforts can now be seen in the British Museum.

This could have been a great movie, if director Stone had just worked with what actually happened. Naturally, staff of the local museum wanted to direct the excavation, as did staff of the British museum. There was an inquest to decide the ownership of the find. World War II was (literally) about to begin. A perfect 90-minute movie. However, it ended up being a less-than-perfect 105 minute movie.

That's because director Stone brings in a (fictitious) cousin of Mrs. Pretty and a beautiful young female archeologist married to a stodgy , unromantic male archeologist. (Guess where that goes?) The inquest--an absolutely essential scene about who owns the find--is botched. You have to work backwards to figure out what happened. Worst of all, you never see the dramatic results of the excavation. You can see them in the British Museum, or online, or on a postcard. However, you don't see them in the movie. (Maybe the British Museum didn't like the movie, and refused to give permission.)

All in all, what could have been an excellent movie turned out to be pretty good movie. It's worth seeing as long as you don't expect great things. It works well on the small screen. The Dig has a pretty good rating of 7.3. I agreed, and rated it 7.

'The Dig' is a beautifully photographed period film (circa 1939, Suffolk, Great Britain) that seemed a lock to garner first Oscars for Ralph Fiennes (*overdue) and Cinematographer Mike Eley. Therefore, I'm instituting the 1st Annual "Oscar Snub Award" to the film most undeservedly left out of nominations. This year it was a no brainer - 'The Dig' wins and it wasn't close. So on with my original review B. S. ("Before Snub")...

Metaphors supporting Themes abound in 'The Dig' - "life is fleeting", "the search for meaning in our lives", "our relevance in History", and "is this all there is". Classic themes for dramas that are the eternal questions within our lives. The film intertwines those themes within the central characters, each conducting their own search for answers.

The framework of the story occurs on the eve of WWII for Great Britain. The impending gravity of such hovers over the film, intensifying the characters' emotions and urgency in searching for answers to such questions - the telescope and magnifying glass used within the story serve as metaphors to that end. Collapsing walls of the dig site that almost takes Basil Brown's life illustrate the tenuous fragility of life which could end in a moment of randomness. There are many more such examples in 'The Dig'.

Such poetic filmmaking takes painstaking attention to detail in production to pull off at the level achieved in this film. Utilizing the beautiful cinematography of Mike Eley and deft touch of Film Editor Jon Harris, Director Simon Stone succeeds in elevating the The Dig to an elite level of film art.

This is without question the Best Picture of the Year, and I am thankful this beautiful film came in at the last possible minute to save an otherwise (and understandable) blah year in the film industry.

Director Simon Stone's Oscar nomination for both Director and Best Picture is a virtual certainty.

Ralph Fiennes (Basil Brown) never misses (except taking home an Oscar), but I predict he will FINALLY* be recognized by Academy members en masse for his best of the year acting in this film, along with Mike Eley for Cinematography.

Carey Mulligan (Edith Pretty) should be nominated except she has two Oscar worthy films, both with a deserved good chance to take home an Oscar. Her spotlight lead part in 'A Promising Young Woman' has much more Oscar potential which will negate her role in The Dig - Mulligan should get Actress of the Year for putting forth two such great performances in one year!

At the end of the night (Oscar night), 'The Dig' could sweep up wins in the aforementioned major Oscar categories for 2020 - I certainly wouldn't bet against it happening (EDIT: Boy was I wrong 😑), and In terms of total Oscar nominations, this film sets up as the front contender for 2020. Then again, it could be a dodgy awards year - competition of last minute entries (is it going to get to the point where releases occur the day before the voting deadline?), and above-the-norm "agendas" abound in the industry these days [EDIT: Boy, was I correct about this (I am sorry to say)].

While the ensemble cast is highly competent, I don't see a particular supporting role having enough "spotlight momentum" to break-out and win an Oscar, although Lily James (Peggy Piggott) is a long-shot.

If there was one weak point in the film, it would be the digression to the character Peggy that seems to be thinly integrated into the film. This hole in the film likely comes from Editing decisions, and will probably cost Lily James, Jon Harris (Editing), and Stone and co-writer Moira Buffini (Adapted Screenplay) Oscar nominations.

The film runs under 2 hours, and it would have only required adding another 5-10 minutes to fully integrate Peggy into the story - Peggy is at a crossroads in her young life and her marriage to a man not interested in women forecasts a gloomy future - She gets sage advice from Edith Pretty (Mulligan) on seizing the day (and not to make the same mistakes she made).

My advice to Stone is "Don't start something without completing it". My guess is there is extra footage on Peggy and perhaps a Director's-Cut extended version will be released at some point completing Peggy's story - I'd like to see that.

👍👍 to all involved in 'The Dig' - the film is a treat for the eyes - the acting superior - production execution excellent - it is 2020's Best Picture by classic film making standards, despite being the biggest Oscar snub of the 2021 Academy Awards.

Here's hoping "agendas" and politics are left out of recognizing the best in film arts. (EDIT: Clearly agendas were NOT left out based on nominations MIA🙁)

* Ralph Fiennes sits atop my IMDb list of 'Best Actors Without An Oscar' (EDIT: and will continue to be atop the list for at least one more year - Note: At least Glen Close has a shot at graduating off my no-Oscar list 🤞)

This should have been a fascinating story about how the Sutton Hoo treasures were uncovered and the politics in society and the museum world at the time. Instead we got a film that started off brightly but quickly drifted off into a number of subplots that didn't go anywhere and don't add anything to the story before petering out. Weird.

Ralph Fiennes plays the character beautifully and carries the movie for the first half. Alas, not enough to make it interesting.

While the start is promising and portrays Basil's (Ralph Fiennes) passion and great work, halfway through the movie the storyline just switches. What started as an ode to Basil's work, the importance of the find and Mrs. Pretty's trust, quickly turned into a story a love story about two characters we hardly care about. Suddenly, Basil is nothing more than a sidelined character who's just kind of "there". Like the makers of the movie just decided to make a completely different film halfway through.

I feel the movie does little more justice to acknowledge Basil's work than history has done by not acknowledging it. His importance and find have been overshadowed by a random love story we've all seen before in many other movies and to have sidelined the archeological find and Basil's importance for some cheap love story, feels wrong.

'The Dig' is not really about archaeology; rather it serves as a backdrop for a quiet and poignant exploration of mortality and legacy at the turn of the second World War. However, the ultimate tragedy of the characters and the looming threat of a war in which we know thousands died overshadows any hope that can be gleaned from Basil Brown's insistence that we live on and we're part of something continuous. By the end of the film, it seems Edith Pretty was right in saying 'We die and we decay'.

The subtle, intelligent performances from Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan and stunning cinematography from Mike Eley of familiar countryside made this film. Archie Barnes (who played Robert Pretty) also put in an impressive performance; his face is one I expect to see in British film in the coming years.

What made this movie good when it could have been great was mostly down to a poor, unoriginal story decision. The romantic subplot was completely unnecessary and felt chiselled in, only adding runtime and pushing the balance of pacing to too slow. Some editing decisions were also not wholly effective, choosing to replace shots of dialogue, acting I should like to have seen, with wider shots of the characters and landscape while the dialogue played under these.

This may seem like a more negative review, but this film really touched me. 'We all fail' (Basil Brown) will stick with me as the hard but nonetheless comforting lesson of 'The Dig'.

I enjoyed this movie even if the actual find is a backdrop and barely mentioned. I felt it fit because the story was not about the ship or the people who made it, it was about the people who discovered it using it as a tool of their own ambitions. Still, it is rather slow moving with lots of 21st century pandering.

Some nice performances here and the set-up for a great narrative about archaeology in pre-war Britain and the role that regular citizens played in scientific exploration, but something goes awry along the way. The second half of the film focuses on several plotlines that simply did not even exist in the first half of the movie. Something was clearly done here after the first draft of the screenplay. Were sections cut? Were characters added to "spice it up"? We may never know, but the final product feels awkward though it's no fault of the cast here.

Based on actual events with World War 2 looming on the horizon, there's much to admire in 'The Dig' - acting and cinematography in particular. The opening sequence tells how a widow commissions a local working class archeology enthusiast called Basil Brown to excavate several mysterious mounds on her property. Sadly, the film short-changes the achievements of this accomplished amateur, just as self-interested academics had done seventy years beforehand.

After some significant artifacts are unearthed, the narrative subsequently shows how a pompous bigwig from London's British Museum arrives to muscle Brown out of the project's driving seat. A collection of colorful characters engaged in various intrigues while making momentous discoveries should have provided more than enough dramatic interest. Unfortunately the screenwriters appeared unable to find sufficient substance in the archeological affairs to sustain a feature film - and invented a tepid romance to flesh out the proceedings. This minor sub-plot provides little more than distraction and the story loses its way. If the script had probed a little deeper into the core material, complemented by a background of the beautiful East Anglian scenery, an impending worldwide catastrophe and ancient mysteries, the result would have surely been far more memorable.

This is a superb film that I could watch again and again.

I've been to see the Sutton Hoo treasures many times and have seen the story told on TV from Blue Peter to Horizon so I was looking forward to this... but also slightly worried about it. Films on subjects like this can be either dry or trivial or triumphalist or worthy or just bad.

But from the first scenes this film is beautiful. These is no other word. The outdoor scenes (and much of it is outdoors) is just breathtakingly gorgeous at times. This is Suffolk and wow does it look good. If anyone has seen the BBC series "The Detectorists" they will get the idea. It captures the big skies of East Anglia so well, sun through the early morning mists, or even after the rain like works of art. The stage on which the action is set is sumptuous.

As for the action - its just so good. Almost dreamlike at times - I found myself thinking of "The Go-Between" (also set in Suffolk, of course!) with dialogue over the top of action that is not taking place at quite the same time. Hard to describe, but its like memories.

Some of the film is a shade predictable - the small enthusiast verses the big guy, the mismatched couple and a possible tragic love story, the child's eye view at times, the repressed sexuality of the period - it's all there. But it is so well done.

The only downside is that this film - this photography - deserves the big screen, but most people will now see it on the small. This is such a shame. Its deserved so much more.

This is a repeat of what others have observed but yeah, I'm in agreement. I was expecting a film about a great archeological find and midway through, it turned into some kind of love story. Neither the archeology story or the love story hit their mark very well leaving me underwhelmed. Even a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the movie is watchable and started out strong but In my opinion the end result is a letdown.

The Dig

I enjoyed this movie overall but there were some problem areas that really irritated. In many way if was self-evident they were trying to aggrandise a really quite boring event, and the obvious insertion of some bizarre sub-plots was done to stretch it into a movie.

The acting was comprehensive and Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan were really quite brilliant(and I not a fan of the latter after that terrible body part movie, Never Let Me Go). I'm not sure I was left convinced by the formal interactions, and the ever-so clipped accents, we were in 1939, and serfdom disappeared some years ago! Whilst good there is no Oscar here as neither provided sufficient range within their roles.

The movie was just stuffed with stars in minor roles it really was incredible, Danny Webb as a butler, Ben Chaplin as a lesser archaeologist, etc etc, great fun!

We just didn't have enough treasure shown to underpin the magnitude of their finds, a silly omission.

It was slow slow slow bordering on stop, and in hindsight very little script of note, it was panning camerawork, as if we were interested in Suffolk.

Overall I enjoyed movie and am giving is a hard 6, worth a watch.

This movie started out well enough, with amazing performances by Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, but unfortunately it gets bogged down by the introduction of various characters and unnecessary and excessive focus on their relationships.

The relationships from those new characters felt like they lacked proper character development, impact, and were completely irrelevant to the dig, and what was discovered.

Also, the discovery itself ended up being very disappointing, and felt like it didn't need a movie made about it at all.

It would have been better if this movie focused much more on the relationship of Edith, and Basil, with everyone else to the side, and the impact of the discovery on their lives rather than the focus being all over the place with several others and their boring relationships.

Very interesting story based on a true story. While very well acted, the liberties taken in the actual story really turned me off. I can say the movie made me do a lot of research on the actual dig, so in that way it was successful. After reading the real story, I think I would have just preferred this as a NatGeo doc. Worth seeing for the acting alone, but dont get too wrapped up in any of the characters.