Quite a long film, but it didn't drag. Tells the story well, but there are really no lead characters, and many of the characters are rather two-dimensional or even caricatures. Visually, it is excellent. I didn't know much about the Peterloo massacre before seeing the film. I now feel educated, and felt that it was two and a half hours well spent, although not a film without flaws. Stronger (more realistically human) characters could perhaps have made the film more engaging, but maybe telling the (hi)story was more important here.

Scenes from two other films/series come to mind: the "Remember My Forgotten Man" number at the end of Gold Diggers of 1933; and the "Jallianwala Bagh" mention in The Jewel in the Crown. In the former, we see the plight of World War I soldiers who return from their victory to unemployment and hunger. In the latter, Barbie Batchelor (played by Peggy Ashcroft),asks Mabel Layton (played by Fabia Drake) who Gillian is. Barbie heard Mabel mention her in her sleep. The confused Mabel realizes that what she has said in her sleep was Jallianwala, a reference to the terrible 1919 massacre of Indians by General Dyer and his men, who fired on the peaceful group, most of whom were attending a festival in an enclosure and could not escape. That event remains embedded in the psyche of Indians, particularly Sikhs, and even colored the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the region as late as 1997.

Peterloo opens at Waterloo, 1815. The battle is over. The Duke of Wellington is richly rewarded for the victory, while a soldier, played by David Moorst, wounded and hungry, returns home to the North of England. There are no jobs; his family and neighbors are hungry. Those who do work are paid a pittance for toiling in the mills. People begin to organize, for more rights, for suffrage, for representation in parliament. The rich of Manchester are callous and cruel. The Prince Regent, who rules in place of his mad father, George III, is a cruel, uncaring fop. Henry Hunt, a radical orator (brilliantly played by Rory Kinnear),is invited up from London to speak to the people in St. Peters Field, Manchester, in August 1819. 60,000 happy, laughing people come from the towns around Manchester with their children, to hear Hunt speak. Suddenly, the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry march in to arrest Hunt. They charge into the crowd, killing several, including women and children. Of the 60,000+ peaceful demonstrators, hundreds were wounded.

The horrendous massacre is quickly named for St. Peter's Field and the Battle of Waterloo: Peterloo. This film bears witness (and pretty accurately) to one of the most terrible events ever to take place on British soil. Definitely worth seeing. And you probably never heard of this because history is written by the winners.

PETERLOO is Mike Leigh's history text transformed into an overlong movie. It's an exploration of just what happened during the infamous Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, looking at the main players involved on both sides and the situation that allowed for the violence to arise. It's handsomely mounted, well-costumed and amusingly acted throughout (I love the regional accents),but it's also rather dry and dusty for the first couple of hours; this just consists of speeches and long conversations which become a little staid before long. However, the massacre itself is very well handled and powerfully done, so worth the wait. The excision of 30-40 minutes would have improved things a great deal.