Peterloo
25/11/18 Filed in: Cinema
It is interesting to look at the range of opinions about this film, from a five-star accolade from Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian to fairly middling reviews at Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. It is in reality the telling of an event in British social history that is sadly overlooked when we educate our children, possibly because it was one of the many less auspicious moments in Britain's past that our jingoistic present would rather forget. But director Mike Leigh is not one to shy away from reminding us of how bad things often were for our forebears.
The film is very matter-of-fact, not indulging in unwarranted added drama. It shows how in those early days of the industrial revolution, while suffering the penury inflicted on them by the corn laws, a hard-pressed people, whose lives were abject misery, were slaughtered during a peaceful demonstration. We see how, with hope in their hearts, a peaceful crowd from Manchester and the neighbouring villages, many dressed in their Sunday best, came to St Peter's Square to listen to the famed orator, Henry Hunt, who addressed them from a cart. Their banners called for reform, universal suffrage, equal representation and, quite simply, love. But the local magistrates and businessmen were appalled, magistrates who wouldn't think twice of imposing the penalty of transportation on petty thieves or, in one case depicted in the film, hanging!
These magistrates watched on from the window of a building overlooking the Square and were sufficiently panicked to read the Riot Act, although they couldn't be heard by most of the assembled crowd. But the reading of the Act was a green light to the soldiers and local Yeomanry to disperse the crowd. It was the Yeomanry who were given the task of arresting the speakers, but they were an ill disciplined paramilitary force drawn from local mill and shop owners, who had scores to settle with those who had organised the meeting. Armed with sabres and clubs they charged the crowd, who panicked. The ensuing melee was misinterpreted by the Hussars, who were standing by, causing them to wade in to quell the disturbance.
The result, an estimated 18 people dead, including four women and a child.
And besides the local magistrates, who bore a great responsibility for these events, we see the prime minister, Lord Liverpool, and the home secretary, Lord Sidmouth, neither at any time showing any compassion as to the plight of the people, while a pampered Prince Regent does his best to emulate a grape-eating god.
While popular history may have forgotten Peterloo, it is credited with being influential in ordinary people ultimately getting the vote and the rise if the Chartist movement, from which grew the Trade Unions.
This film is a history lesson, well acted and, by not being over-dramatised, it conveys a veracity that is worthy of those people who suffered in the pursuit of rights and privileges that today we all take for granted.
The result, an estimated 18 people dead, including four women and a child.
And besides the local magistrates, who bore a great responsibility for these events, we see the prime minister, Lord Liverpool, and the home secretary, Lord Sidmouth, neither at any time showing any compassion as to the plight of the people, while a pampered Prince Regent does his best to emulate a grape-eating god.
While popular history may have forgotten Peterloo, it is credited with being influential in ordinary people ultimately getting the vote and the rise if the Chartist movement, from which grew the Trade Unions.
This film is a history lesson, well acted and, by not being over-dramatised, it conveys a veracity that is worthy of those people who suffered in the pursuit of rights and privileges that today we all take for granted.