The title of 2013’s A Field in England is truth in advertising, in that it takes place entirely in a British field.  Set in the British Civil War, it begins with the bookish Reece Shearsmith barely escaping a skirmish to find peace on the other side of dense shrubbery.  There, he encounters a rough but amiable deserter Peter Ferdinando, that man’s friend Richard Glover and the rather stern and terse Ryan Pope.

Together, these four barely even wander into the titular field. Instead of focusing on forward momentum, they have all manner of odd, rambling conversations.  Shearsmith tries talking to the dim Glover about his education in astrology and the other man professes ignorance of the stars and other planets, to which scholar replies, “What, you never looked up?”  Ferdinando struggles hard with a bowel movement, prompting Glover afterwards to ask if it was a boy or a girl.

Really, the movie could have been only this and, while I still would have complained about it, it could have been an existential work akin to a Beckett play.  I can just imagine the battle raging just on the other side of a hedge, while these four carry on their elliptical conversations of little importance.

Instead, things go flying off the rails after a stew is made from mushrooms foraged nearby, and by somebody who did not know enough to not pick the psychedelic varieties. There’s also the possibility they intentionally sought out those.  All I know for certain is the picture becomes a looong stretch of imagery in search of a plot.

I will concede most of that imagery is stunning, even if some of it is just waves of tall wild grass blowing in the wind.  At times, Shearsmith looks up to see a giant disc of billowing black smoke threatening to obscure the sky.  A finale of alternating frames warrants the pre-film warning of stroboscopic effects.

The craziness is unleashed when the men become determined to pull a stake out of the ground which has what appear to be primitive figures carved into it.  A rope is wound around it, and it looks like four grown men are about to lose a tug-of-war against a wooden post, as it starts turning and winding the rope around itself.

It is unclear exactly how it happens, but they end up unearthing Michael Smiley.  It is revealed this practitioner of the dark arts was the man Shearsmith had been tasked to find.  They had been employed by the same master until Smiley absconded with seven rare documents with which he intends to do some sort of great evil I do not believe is ever detailed.

Smiley claims he had summoned his former co-worker to this location, as Shearsmith has superior powers of divination to find treasure Smiley believes to be buried in the field. To unleash those powers, Smiley will first do something to break the scholar’s mind, though we’re not sure what that is. All we hear are extensive screams on the soundtrack until he emerges from Smiley’s tent with glazed eyes and an idiotic smile on this face.  He is at the end of a long rope and used like a truffle pig to sniff out the item Smiley is after. I initially thought this meek bookworm had been lobotomized, but he will recover later from whatever had happened.

Although we don’t see what transpired in the tent, there are some other moments of rather extreme gore, unfortunately.  This film was from Ben Wheatley, who directed the similar gory Kill List, but the violence in that film was to make the audience realize how horrible a character was who didn’t realize they are a monster.  Instead, the camera lingers on such elements here as a bullet-shattered leg bone in a manner that is almost leering, as if we’re supposed to be enjoying this.

I had first seen A Field in England on its original release and it was little improved on this second viewing more than a decade later.  There are some interesting ideas here, but not enough to warrant the length and the lack of sufficient connective tissue.  Some of the artistic flourishes are interesting on their own, but largely feel like a student film exercise, as they rarely seem to serve the thin story.  To once again quote Glover, “Tis indeed a blessed relief to have been forgotten.”  I doubt I will forget this picture, but it will be a blessed relief to not trouble myself with viewing it again.

Dir: Ben Wheatley

Starring Reece Shearsmith, Michael Smiley, Peter Ferdinando, Richard Glover

Watched as part of Severin’s blu-ray box set All the Haunts be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror