There are a lot more incredible scenes from this film- particularly the way that it portrays artillery and its effects on a line of soldiers. If we'd like to see another video on it, let me know!
The majority of Cumberland's army were lowland Scots, but, yes, it was the Highland families and their way of life which suffered, never to recover. I found the battlefield and all it represents a harrowing and depressing experience. Prayers for all who suffered in the Stewart rebellions.
Its incredible that the production only had ONE, friggin' ONE cannon. The editing is so good I believed there were at least three cannons used. Roger Deakin's cinematography was truly extraordinary.
The movie was first broadcast by the BBC. I and millions of other TV viewers had no idea of what we were about to see that Friday night. I saw it as a young boy and was truly horrified by it and had nightmares about it for a long time after. And I was not alone. It caused a sensation in the country. The BBC was inundated with tens of thousands of complaints about the depicted savagery and scenes of the atrocities that took place after the battle, which were incredibly portrayed by that cast of (hard to believe) amateur actors. The direction, photography, and editing should have garnered armfuls of Oscars for everybody involved but it was considered too graphic for American audiences. It is a magnificent film. Even today, with all the real barbarity of war that we see on the six o'clock news, nothing comes close to the emotional shock of viewing this film again. It was gut-wrenching when I saw it all those years ago and again when I viewed it many decades later. The cold-blooded; detached, and creatively invented "newscast" interviews of the characters on the field, from Bonny Prince Charlie, the Duke of York, captains, privates, and clansmen add a humanitarian but surreal atmosphere to everything we see and are about to see." Culloden" is a tour de force that depicts the eternal horror of what war must be really like. It is the best war film I have ever seen. And I recommend unequivocally. Kudo's Brandon for resurrecting this magnificent film.
This was one of the films that ignited my lifelong interest in history. CULLODEN was broadcast in the US, but only by a few stations on the Public Broadcast System. I first viewed it in the 60's when it was shown on Washington DC's WETA. I was frustrated that the events depicted in the film were barely mentioned in my high school text books, so I resolved to learn more. That spark still burned 50 years later, when I walked the actual battlefield in 2014.
My old headmaster plays one of the highlanders at the beginning...speaking in Gaelic, this comes close to what it must have been like to fight there..the sheer panic in the Government troops awaiting the Highland charge, biting the cartridge and ramming home..
‘S i’n fhuil bha ‘n cuisl’ ar sinnsreadh, ‘S an innsgin a bha ‘nan aigne…” “Our blood is still our fathers, And ours the valour of their hearts….” And may I say what an excellent analysis of a great film by a man who is onviously from a bygone era. Alba gu bragh
I remember seeing this in high school in Edinburgh in the early 80s. Most war movies take a side. But the best ones are where the movie takes a relatively neutral stance (A bridge Too Far), show tragic missions (Black Hawk Down), present the war from the enemy's view point (Cross of Iron).
Excellent video as always, sir. Most profound. Apologies for this next bit not being strictly on topic but as a historian and a Scot I find it necessary to say the following as often as possible: While working at the Stirling Smith Museum some years ago I had the pleasure of meeting the curator of the Glencoe museum and the subject turned to Culloden and the then-recent archaeological findings suggesting that the Jacobites were armed with more firearms than was previously thought (French-supplied I believe, but I may be misremembering). Although the 'highland charge' was a tactic, in the aftermath of the defeat the notion was spread far and wide by the English that the Scots had few firefarms and were, in effect, brutal, beastlike and lacked the ability to fight like the 'civilised', 'efficient' and' modern' English army. In short, it was widespread propaganda to dehumanise the Scots ever further and only recently, in my experience, is the accepted history begining to be challenged. I'm not trying to stoke any tensions, just trying to spread the conclusions that my experience and research have brought others as well as myself to. Apologies again for this not being strictly about the subject of the video but I thought you and others might be interested. Please keep up the message that war is a bloody awful thing.
H_412 If that’s the case I’d think that their tactics would probably have been similar to the Swedes where they’d fire once at relatively close range and then charge.
"Brutal, beastlike and lacking the ability to fight like the 'civilised', 'efficient' and' modern' English army was probably true by time of Culloden, They had travelled long distances on foot with little rest, shelter or food, anything they wore would have probably been reduced to sodden rags or stolen by foraging. The film should have shown them shivering from tiredness, starvation and the cold, let alone fear. They wouldn't have been trained, many would have been young lads from remote homesteads with little interaction with people outside their clan, after travelling to more wealthy England how would the more settled and wealthy people of places like Derby have seen these potential looters in such a state. Even today, we see protesters who aren't wearing shirt and ties as scruffs and hooligans to be looked down upon, a viewpoint the vested interests love to sustain.
@@redf7209 *"The film should have shown them shivering from tiredness, starvation and the cold........"* The film does indeed do this and to great effect. I recommend that you watch it. It's here on RU-vid, entitled 'Culloden 1964'.
I instruct Canadian army cadets (12-19) and the media portrayal of "romanticized" 18 and 19th century combat can make it a challenge to teach regimental history. I always get asked "why did they just stand there and wait to get shot". Your videos have helped to contextualize and visualize the realities of why tactics were the way they were. This video in particular. This mockumentary, while graphic, was a great eye opener to our more senior kids who were taking an interest in the traditions of the British Army and Artillery, and helped to humanize the individual soldiers who were both on "the line", the battery, and the receiving end of the horrors of wars of that era.
I don't agree with your description of this film being anti-British. Anti-war, yes, but not anti-British. I actually found the portrayal of the two sides remarkably balanced, if persistently cynical; neither side, nor their commanding figures, come out smelling anything like roses, but for good, thoroughly explained reasons.
I will admit that my being much more 'Pro-Hannoverian' will skew my perspective on that. Though, I do feel that this film could have done a better job at pointing out that this was not a "Scottish vs English" battle, but as another commenter put it, "Jacobite vs Government" battle. I get a sense, overall, that the film is portraying this as a shared-blame affair despite the fact that one side was supporting an active pretender to the throne, while the other was merely defending its status quo. Though the actions taken by the British state *after* the rebellion, in quashing further resistance, certainly do align more with that narrative.. Certainly the "anti-war" and "anti-aristocracy" themes are much stronger, here.
@@BrandonF I did like the fact that they went out of their way the point out that this affair _wasn't_ merely a (bi-)national one. Bonnie Prince Charlie, as shown here, has grown so foreign to his home the he's struggling to speak English, much less Gaelic. The Jacobites are heavily relying on French support troops in the form of Irish exiles. And in one particular scene, one can hear some of the government officers chatting in _German._ Lastly, the documentary does mention that there were more Scotsmen marching _against_ the Jacobites at Culloden than with them. Personally, I'd consider myself fairly neutral in my sympathies on this issue On one hand, I'm an unabashed anglophile, and I have some quite strong feelings about the constant secessionism in the United Kingdom. On the other, I myself am Bavarian, and the current heir to the Jacobite throne is the Duke of Bavaria, so yeah, that's pretty cool too, for me.
It is by no mean anti-british indeed, it depicts prince Charles and other Jacobite commanders as total idiots and only show the battle and the war as a British vs Scotts thing, yet the Jacobites inflicted terrible defeats before Culloden and their ranks was full of deserters from British regiments, still wearing the exact same redcoat uniforms but with the blue bonnet instead of the hat. Just as it doesn't show the French troops that fought at Culloden. Moreover, hand-to-hand combat only happened in one main spot of the battle line at Culloden, and was quite brief because the Highlanders were almost immediately flanked in cross fire and shot to pieces. The flanking troops of from the British left wing fired dozens of volleys at point blank range without any Jacobite ever reaching their line. Most of the battle's casualties happened there. Everywhere else, the charge was basically cut down by musketery. Nothing either on the glorious escape of the Royal Ecossois, who escaped an ambush, shot the Highlander chief who laid it, saved the regimental colours, and covered the Jacobite flight. They only surrendered days later at Inverness to be shiped back to France.
Saw this on PBS as a kid. And again some years ago. Gut wrenching and deeply impactful stuff. It was the first of this type of docu-drama and is considered by many film scholars to be the finest ever made and one of the best films ever made of any genre. Most of it was filmed with a hand-held camera. Thanks for covering this gem. I'll be viewing it again.
4:19, the way this soldier looks at this approaching 800 crazed jacobites gives such a nervous feeling. waiting for the next order must feel like an eternity while watching them approach. he doesn't blink, he doesn't look around... just staring at the charge while moving along his drill with muscle memory. an outstanding scene.
I have watched this movie many times, I love it that someone else appreciates it as much as I do. Outside of my high school I study wars like the Jacobite rebellion, seven years war, war of Austrian succession, war of Spanish succession, and the great northern war. I love your channel and am glad you appreciate historical authenticity as much as I.
I saw this film on ABC TV in about 1966 when I was 8 years old. It frightened shit out of me. I watched it again on RU-vid in 2013. It frightened shit out of me again.
I’m so glad that you covered this film and period. I’m looking forward in taking part in a re-enactment if the Jacobite march to Derby during the 45 rebellion this December in the UK. I like the 18th century a lot.
David Dowdall I’ll certainly try. I’ve do it the last three years. It is relatively small event but I’ll try an hunt down some footage I know it is on RU-vid somewhere. (Found some from 2017. I’m one of the Scottish flag holders for the highlanders) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bk-Y4KCwkOM.html
The Director did a documemtary film in a very similar style about a hypothetical "limited" nuclear exchanged between NATO and the UDSSR and how it effects Britain. "The war Game". One of the most gut wrenching films I've ever seen. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Nzd_VE-bfhA.html Apparently both films are available in a DVD bundle
More Scots served in the Government (Hanoverian/Protestant) army than in the Jacobin highland (Stuart/Catholic) army. Beside the lowland Scottish regiments there were highland clan militia in the government army that were there to settle old clan disputes.
They also forget that there were English, Irish and French in the Jacobite army during the 45 rebellion. When the Jacobites invaded England a regiment of English supporters was formed at Manchester. Whilst the French Sent some French troops and The famous Irish Dillon's regiment. So the Jacobite army at Culloden was not all Highlanders.
Οf course. The Jacobite Rebelion was like a "british war of religion" where protestants and catholics fiught each other. Just like the French War of Religion who was the goverment(catholics) against Huguenots(protestants). So the large scottish protestant population would naturaly fight for the also protestant goverment of London
That's how it was in just about every war fought in Scotland. The Highlanders and Lowlanders aren't starkly divided between one side or the other, and the Highland Clans are usually more motivated by their own feuds and grievances with each other, than whatever 'cause' they seem to champion in a particular battle. Not to the detriment or denigration of the Scottish Clans or their fighters - just a fact. Scotland was a very different part of the Isles, and British 'sensibilities' tend to get lost somewhere in the fog.
As usual, a very good job in highlighting not just the film, but also the horror that soldiers put themselves through. Thank you for raising the movie again into our consciousness.
Funny you should upload a video on the horror of 18th-century warfare today, Brandon, as just a few days ago I stumbled upon a song from the American War of Independence that gives the average Patriot's perspective on the matter. It's titled "Fare Thee Well Ye Sweethearts" or sometimes just "Fare Thee Well Sweethearts". While the song does state that the Patriot cause is just and worth fighting for, it has a very melancholic tone and looks forward to the day when the war is over. Most telling is one of the later verses. While the words change slightly from version to version, it goes something along the lines of this: And then each lad will take his lass, all beaming like a star, And in her loving arms forget the dangers of the war.
My headmaster of my primary played one of the highlanders in this film, Mr Campbell was his name ironically!! Great film, it still holds its own today, for realism and brutality of 18th century warfare.
One of my family members fought on the side of the British for the crown during the jacobite rebellion. I know nothing else about him, but through this it is a war that I am fascinated by. I am grateful for you bringing this film to my attention as I’ve been looking for new things to watch! I agree with what you say about war films except for a good one. With a good one, you walk away feeling a little disgusted and disturbed. These were the feelings that I got from this scene that you showed.
The pre-battle "interviews" give great context to the events of the melee. I haven't seen this film in 50 years and still remember bits of the interviews. @ 5:15 "to the right" The Grenadiers deployed an extra man in every rank. the instruction was to thrust with the bayonet to the right as the Jacobins would be parrying with their shields and raising their swards overhead leaving their right torso exposed. It took great discipline to count on the training of the man on your left to dispatch the foe directly in front of you.
In one way, it's the lack of budget that makes this fight scene: in trying to mask the small number of people the director had to take a close and personal perspective. I'm impressed by the attention to other details like the soldiers' expressions and the devolvement of the battle from rapid firing to hand to hand combat. The sense of terrified, visceral chaos is real.
Great video about a fascinating documentary. I was impressed to see read effective the Highland charge was - breaking through at Prestopans; partially at Falkirk; and even getting through thr first line of defence at Culloden. I know more about Napoleonic battles, where it seems infantry melee was rare - charges were more like morale contests, being decided by one side breaking before hand to hand combat. The Highland charge seems contrary to this - probably because the less well drilled advancing Scots did not try to win by firepower and perhaps also because firepower (especially artillery) was less lethal than during the Napleonic period.
This is so strange I literally was thinking over the past few days that you should do a video about the film and the Rebellion in general there's some twilight zone stuff going on here awesome.
It was shown to my English History Class at the U of MD in 1972-3 to the amazement of the students!! I had seen it on PBS in 1967 and was Overwhelmed then too!🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
I first saw this film in the late 1960's in Philadelphia. My partner was running a free film program in a co-op coffee house in a "liberated " house in West Philadelphia. Most of the films,and the projector, came from the public library. Culloden blew me away. To someone who grew up watching 1950's TV, however, the format was by no means a silly conceit, but rather an imitation of a very popular 1950's show called "You Are There, " in which a historical event was portrayed as if it were be covered as it happened by a TV news team. Picture, for instance, Brutus being interviewed on the current state of Roman politics on the morning of the Ides of March. So I felt it was both hilarious and appropriate, and made the whole film that much more effective. Especially the interviews of the highland crofters just before the slaughter.
Subscribed. As a history teacher, I thank you for bringing this film to my attention. It looks groundbreaking. Remarkable. I use the early '80s film April Morning, which is about the military outbreak of the American Revolution, in my teaching. I only use one scene, really: when the Redcoats march into Lexington, starting from outside the frame. Kids today don't have a true appreciation for just how formidable those formations could be. In April Morning you hear them coming, and finally see them, professional killers. Those uniforms and tight formations impress: these are soldiers. My students really react to it, and imagine being in those shoes of those common men facing them. The film you've introduced me to takes the stuffing and polish out of warfare from that era. I only wonder if my students can handle it. Well done!!
Years back in the 90s I was in the Cromwell productions video of Culloden (amongst others). Some of us used this film for research prior to get the vibe.... if you are looking for me in the doco I'm the jacobite who gets hit full gut with grapeshot...still have the shredded shirt from where the charges tore through it spraying the blood charges.
Fantastic Brandon. This is still one of my favourite war films. Most Scots were against the Jacobites, sadly the highlanders and their clans paid a terrible price for supporting the last Stewart claimant to the British throne. This is one of your best uploads, and I thoroughly commend you for it.
The first time I saw Culloden (TV, in Australia) I was in shock and horrified. The second time, via RU-vid, it plunged me into a deep depression. It’s a gruesome film - more for what is omitted than for being graphic in the way modern films are. That’s its genius.
'and actually did it extraordinarily tastefully'... so says the presenter of this post. If only he knew just how tastefully. One of my friends (who'd have been about ten at the time) got a wee job as an extra on 'Culloden' and had to pretend to be a dead highland laddie on the battlefield, so he turned up in his kilt and promptly got splattered with fake gore as his makeup, only the gore was actually strawberry jelly (I think you call it jello in the States) and custard... very tasty, so he told me... made his day.
Yes you’re right I saw that on our local PBS affiliate in Houston in the early 1970s when I was in high school and it really provoked my interest in reacting. It was very well done I could tell even at that age. I remember how gripping it was as there was a man laying facedown on the ground feeding his face into the ground in pain and I had never seen anything like that in a movie or TV show. and remember Steve Allen had already done a series called meeting of minds in which there was a roundtable of four people from history who would sit and discuss a topic with him as a moderator so this was something that was on producers minds at the time, that is bringing a news crew back to a real historical event and filming it as it happened and talking to the people involved. It’s still a good idea. I made a film myself in my early career called succession which is a group of men living near Fort Sumter discussing what is going to happen if a war breaks out and then during the card game word arrives that the shooting has started and the conversation changes to fact. Since I was one of the historians and customer and director of the project it was done very authentically using all my own clothing from the period and furniture ha ha. I am very impressed that you knew about this old documentary from England! There is a another good foreign documentary series that was seen on PBS back then there were interviews with Mark Twain as portrayed not by Hal Holbrook, but by a Canadian actor and it was actually better. I wish I could remember the name of it.Maybe someone reading this can tell me what it was so we could find it.
Good to know someone appreciates Watkins and his film(s). His “The War Game” about Nuclear War among civilians, was made a few years later, almost 20 years before “The Day After” but just as powerful, like “Culloden”.
This was a BBC production for television. As I understand it they used re-enactors in the filming. Your evocative narration really adds to the weight of these scenes.
First saw this film in a British history class many years ago, still watch it from time to time, and the lead up to the battle that discusses the social status of the common soldiers on both sides is also fantastic.
At Culloden not only was the Jacobite Cause lost yet the 1200 year old Scottish Clan System/Highland way of life along with what was the last ancient tribal culture in all of Europe all came to a sad & tragic end upon those blood drenched fields, all during that last ferocious & desperate Highland charge of Gaelic war cries, flashing swords, sharpened bayonets leveled, discharging muskets, horrific death groans & savagely clashing armies, much of which was captured superbly in that clip above. Yes, the last such tribal holdout in all of Europe came to a bloody & lamentable end on that field, all while the indomitable & fearsome Jacobite soldiers/Highland tribesmen fought heroically, like fearless lions, undefeated in spirit, giving this magnificent account of themselves in battle, dying in droves as they crashed maniacally into the bristling, waiting bayonets of a numerically superior, more disciplined force. Freedom fighters right down to the cellular level, RIP🏴🏴🏴
Director used the same style a few years later with his movie "The War Game" as a portrait of a nuclear attack on England. It was such a traumatic movie that it was banned until the 80s.
Good comment. War Games is incredibly moving and essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in nuclear weapons. I last watched it in the screening room inside the nuclear bunker at Hack Green up in Cheshire, England - terrifying!
As you say about seeing a really good war film, that's how I felt first time I saw Catch 22. Though I was only 13 at the time. Watching it with my WWII vet dad helped.
I heard about this film at school when another class were shown it (although I'm not sure if it was edited or shortened) and I felt very bereft. I seem to remember it covered in greater detail who the men were and what they actually fought for too. Time to watch it all through now, raise a glass to public service broadcasting...
War for the common Soldier is like this movie portrays, Narrow, Confined, and very Personal. Fifty years after my all expense paid, year long vacation in Vietnam I will have nightmares again of such, it will be fun they said, activities. The film clip was not what I experienced, how could it be, but the felt emotion was the same. It is a shame that good men on either side die while the people that caused it to happen continue to live and cause more trouble in the name of their side. It is a pity humanity love to cause aggravation and trouble.
In my experience films set in the mid-to-late 19th century tend to do this very well as well--depict linear combat as brutal bloody, and very personal war, rather than bombastic popinjays facing each other down impersonally. Films set during America's Civil War which reject the myth of the Lost Cause--Glory, Lincoln, Free State of Jones, and Cold Mountain all spring to mind--seem particularly good at this.
I saw this in the 1970's first. I guess I was 12-13 years old. It had almost as big an impact as the World at War episode about Belsen. The dying men at the end, still twitching in their final moments. Everyone who is interested in history should see this.
The historical films that effected me on a deep and personal level. Pieces of artwork that you talk about I actually watched in school that I never would have sat thru otherwise. The pianist and shinliers list. Those two films made history real for me. Not just some abstract thought of the past but real people who had hopes and dreams and families and weddings. People just like you or me who lived not so long ago who experienced things that to us are so tragic and numbers so large its incomprehensible. We read statistics like 10,000 men died in a single battle as the answer to the question of a history exam. But never did I stop to think until those movies that every single one of those 10,000 men had wives and mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and kids and grandchildren. (I say men as an example though those films are about the entirety of the Jewish population under occupation.) They were just like any of us they worked a normal job and they answered the call of their homelands when called upon. War is hell on earth. Some of us are extremely lucky to never yet know that hell. I hope in the upcoming times we can come together as humans and look to the stars and mars together.
I watched this several times when I was a Jacobite re-enactor. I learn how to a proper Highland Charge from it. It is a great movie, it was a hard movie the second time as I paid much more attention to the film it's self
This is crazy! I can’t believe your making a video on this! I watched this with my Scottish friend, and we had to stop because of the gory effects... I was 6. 😂 Great job!
My two favourite war movies are 1066: Battle for Middle-Earth, a two-part British movie about the three battles in England in 1066, and Death and Glory at Changde, a Chinese movie about the Battle of Changde in 1943. Both are excellent movies, remarkably accurate to their time period. Both have a cast of main characters, but both emphasise the suffering of all those involved in the battles, rather than focusing on a single A-team of invulnerable heroes. Both have their problems too, but they're still great movies.
*Culloden* is a great movie, and Peter Watkins an interesting director. The first of his films I ever saw was his (very long) documentary about the Paris Commune, which was shot much later, and, as *Culloden*, starred mainly non professional actors, and had the same basic idea of a TV crew filming the events on the side of the Communards, while the Versaillais had their own cable news. The movie is heavily politicized, of course, and when both sides discuss the events, they more often than not discuss modern political issues as well. A weird movie, kind of an experience, demanding, but definitely worth to be seen.
Im going to be that guy...You introduce us to 'Culloden 1745'...but the battle was in April of 1746. Fantasic content as always though! I had the pleasure of working at the battles visitor centre, definitely worth the visit. Have you been to the Highlands before?
Always be that guy- at least on my channel, where half the schtick is that I'm overly pedantic! I've added a note of correction and changed the thumbnail to reflect it. Suppose I was just looking at the Rebellion primarily being in '45 and forgot that wars can last longer than single year.
Excellent analysis of a masterpiece. I was a ten year old schoolboy when this was transmitted. Infact my history teacher told us to watch it. I think you would have given a better example of the reality of the clan system and the antagonists of both sides if you had shown clips from the beginning of the film rather than the fighting. This film truly portrayed the incompetence of The Young Pretender.
Watkin's work, though on a tight budget gave great inspiration to Sergei Bondarchuk, who cut Pete a bit of a cheque after the success of Waterloo (the undoubted visceral, real and affecting qualities of which Culloden helped develop).
