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Comrades (1986)

Director: Bill Douglas

Average user rating
4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Douglas' epic and very British film about the Tolpuddle Martyrs - 1830s Dorset farm labourers who formed a union to protest against subsistence wages, only to be deported to Australia - employs a minimum of fussy historical detail to offer a didactic but never dogmatic film of wide-ranging relevance. Politically, it foreshadows modern labour disputes; aesthetically, as 'a lanternist's account', the film is an investigation of different, pre-cinematic modes of story-telling. Fuelling the whole is a deeply humane concern for suffering, coupled with a righteous anger directed against hypocrisy and inequality. Equally importantly, however, it works as often humorous, always intelligently moving spectacle, immaculately performed, structured and shot.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • Phillip said...
    Posted on Feb 25 2009 18:58 Fascinating subject and has many engaging aspects, and excellent performances, but at least partially spoilt by some infuriating plot elements which seem to go nowhere, with characters who appear to 'pop-up' for no good reason, some clumsy attempts at irony, and some film-maker's conceits, at the cost of a lack of exposition of the legal / political situation which led to the injustices suffered by those ill-used men. I've left in un-rated because it's worth judging for yourself.
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  • Sara said...
    Posted on Feb 18 2009 21:06 Film is playing now on Film4 - maybe they will repeat it soon since any film which appears once these days tends to reappear quite quickly - it's a fascinating study. They didn't show the horrible things which happened on the ship out, for which I'm most grateful
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  • Roland said...
    Posted on Jun 19 2008 12:20 Me too, i am very keen to get a copy of this classic movie. Does anyone know of an agent that ships either a VHS or DVD? In hope...........!!
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  • jaime said...
    Posted on Dec 06 2007 09:11 PLEASE CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE I CAN GET A COPY OF THIS FILM. I AM DECENDED FROM JAMES HAMMETT TOLPUDDLE MARTYR AND DESPERATELY WANT TO SEE THIS FILM
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Cast & crew

Director: Bill Douglas

Producer: Simon Relph

Cast: Robin Soans, Alex Norton, William Gaminara, Philip Davis, Robert Stephens, Freddie Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Hordern, James Fox, Barbara Windsor, Imelda Staunton full cast

Duration: 183 mins


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