Peterloo

16 August 2019 is the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester.

Peterloo begins after Napoleon's defeat in Waterloo in 1815. Joseph is a young shell shocked soldier who returns home to Manchester to no job and no prospects. The spoils of victory is only shared by the wealthy. The poor suffer increased prices due to the corn laws.

Voting rights also belong to the rich and the powerful. The ordinary man wants the extension of the franchise and parliamentary reform, the wealthy resist. They also fear that a visit to Manchester from orator and reformer Henry Hunt (Rory Kinnear) will lead the rabble to riot. The local gentry and magistrates are intent on putting down any protest and have the army on standby. On the fateful day the army panics leading to the deaths of 18 people and many hundreds injured even though the protest was peaceful.

Mike Leigh intended to make a working class epic that is still relevant today. There is humour, Hunt is a rich pompous dandy who himself is unable to connect to the ordinary man he likes to champion. However much of the film feels like a sermon with long lengthy speeches and ideals which repeat themselves. The landed, the military and the judges are painted as two dimensional baddies with only one possible exception. It also has a very strong Lancashire dialect, which some might find difficult to follow.

Leigh does add intrigue. Radical agitators are watched by government spies. Letters are intercepted by the Home Office.

Peterloo is an angry film to commemorate a terrible event. It is wonderfully shot but its running time needed to be drastically reduced and some of the speeches needed to be cut down. As for young Joseph, his fate was signposted.

Mike Leigh's historical epic Peterloo, details the events that led to Manchester's devastating 1819 Peterloo Massacre, which saw the British Tory government ordering a brutal military charge into a working-class crowd of peaceful pro-democracy protestors. It's a well directed historical film that talks about the events which happened 200 years ago - yet at the same time lashes out at present-day politics.

This film is the result of hard work. Running for 154 minutes, dozens of characters and lots of conversations that all build up to its titular origin. Peterloo is an "experience". Let me clarify: the slow-march toward the awful event is so exciting, that by the way the battle is staged, it all feels so real and even more aggressive. These victims didn't see any of it coming and actions like this still happen up to this day. It's interesting to see a seemingly more arthouse film with a serious subject, get promoted as if it was a commercial blockbuster. That makes me ask the question, if they couldn't have turned it up a notch and make this into a blockbuster with more of a budget and still hold on to its script, to make everything even more epic and reach a wider audience.

The opening sequence puts Joseph (David Moorst), a soldier son of a mill-workers family who's suffering from PTSD, in the spotlight. He's covered in dirt and blood in the middle of Waterloo, where Britain just victoriously won the battle. We follow him on his way home, wearing his military redcoat that's looking rougher by the minute. There's not really a protagonist in this story, we get to see different point of views throughout the film, though most screen time is reserved for Joseph's family. They basically stand for a community in the middle of revolution - infuriated by post-war poverty, Parliament's refusal to extend the vote to the working class and import restrictions. Joseph's father (Pearce Quigley) attends meetings with radicals, his mother Nellie (a magnificent Maxine Peake) remains her smug self, skeptical of change that will never happen anyway.

We soon see another point of view, with spies delivering reports from these radical-meetings to the powerful rich, angry, white men in black robes who love to sanction everyone and everything that doesn't comply to their point of view on society. These magistrates appoint Sir John Byng (Alastair Mackenzie) as the Northern District commander because of his lack of political interest. These "gentlemen" conclude that upper-class orator Henry Hunt (Rory Kinnear) is their best chance to get some attention from higher-ups, but he is the one that plans a non-violent demonstration on St. Peter's Field in Manchester, for his democratic followers.

Dick Pope channels 19th century paintings with his cinematography. Which is wonderful for some shots, but gets tiring when everything gets the same half-lit look. Performances by Peake and Kinnear are extraordinary and especially the latter stands out with multiple layers to his character, not afraid to take it to a next level of acting. Jon Gregory's exquisite editing skills, give us a clear look at the massacre, focusing on each victim and the violence that everybody had to endure.

Peterloo's finale will outrage you and delivers on its buildup. This is still an arthouse film and the battle at St. Peter's Field misses the grandeur of other historic epos, but it concentrates on the characters we met and respects these storylines like only writer and director Mike Leigh could've done. Peterloo isn't perfect, but it is unexpected in every way and one stirring piece of filmmaking that you don't want to miss.

This is the first review I've ever done, but was moved to do so by some reviews that I have read on here since watching the film. So apologies to you experts, but here's my tuppenceworth. On the down side, a bit overlong, could have been a bit less wordy and faster paced. But, I left the cinema with the same feeling that I did in the early 70s after seeing Soldier Blue: stunned by the brutality of "the authorities" over the disenfranchised. Forensic in its drama/documentry approach and absolutely true to events (I have since checked various historical sources). This is what happens when people feel they lack a voice and does resonate with today's UK. I thought the lighting was superb and the epic, grand scale setting rare in a UK film. A must watch for teenagers who will not have heard of this event in history at school.

Peterloo is the Best Mike Leigh picture I've seen. Yes it is too long & speech filled but the Manchester massacre of 1819 is horribly dramatic. You see how the forces of the status quo combine to send in the cavalry & yeomanry to charge at peaceful protestors, maiming hundreds and killing 15. The protestors wanted the right to vote, reform in Parliament (Manchester didn't have an MP) & lower food prices. The film is very well shot with an excellent performance as always from Maxime Peake. Oddly after a long build up to the massacre there is no focus on what happened afterwards.

An interesting look at a little portrayed period of English history. Yes, the climax is harrowing, as it should be, but the lead up to it is engaging, using a series of interesting characters, back stories and even a little humour. The sets and costumes are accurate and they've been true to the accents, giving it an overall realistic feel and giving us an intriguing window into the period. I do like a historical drama and I would say that this delivers, contrasting Waterloo against the the terrible event to come, class against class and friend against friend. Some people have commented that it's a little too long but it didn't feel that way to me. There were some great scenes and dialogue woven into the story, such as the individual courtroom tales, giving a taste of just how harsh the period was and how badly the working class were treated, as well as the polar opposite Prince Regent frames, all of which are tinged with humour and just the right amount of the dramatic character acting along the way. Overall, I'd say it's a well done, atmospheric portrayal of the period and events, with a really good cast. Entertaining and educational.