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Comrades (1986)

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5 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

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

martin said...

Posted on Aug 23 2009 11:45 Wayne, the film has just been reissued by the British Film Institute and is available to rent on lovefilm.com if that helps you? There are a small number of scenes of magicians, travelling theatrical typse and the lanternist so the some of the scenes you were after might still be in (given the lenght I wonder if many scenes were deleted?)

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Wayne Osborne said...

Posted on Aug 23 2009 11:29 Can anyone tell me how I can get to see it, as I was an extra in the movie

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Martin said...

Posted on Aug 23 2009 10:22 I saw the last two hours of this film late one night ten years ago on TV and it has stayed with me in the same way Bill Douglas's other films have done (My Childhood Trilogy). He used visual images of a realistic nature and a minimum amount of dialogue to create a poetic form of cinema. Comrades is very long and very slow. Having seen it before and knowing a small amount about the story helped me watch it the second time. I knew who the characters were (they are not introduced using usual cinematic grammar so it can be hard to know exactly who is who to begin with). However the acting is great, the cinematography is wonderful, there are some jokes, and the camera angles and construction of scenes is always interesting. If you have the patience you will be rewarded. I guess I should re-iterate it is very long and slow but unusually for me, I liked both these aspects of the film.

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Wayne Osborne said...

Posted on Jul 30 2008 11:04 Hi, I was an extra in this movie in Australia when filming was at Old Sydney Town. I have never seen the movie,but I would love to get a copy. I really want to see the Magician Scenes, if they weren't cut!!!

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jules said...

Posted on May 04 2008 20:09 This is one of the best films I have ever seen. I am trying to find a copy as I last saw it ten years ago. It is still fresh in my mind however. Would be grateful if anyone can help source a copy for me.

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