JohannGE
17th September 2009, 23:45
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Great to see Bill Douglas's Comrades re-released by the BFI this year to commemorate the 175 aniversary of the trial of the Tollpudle Martyrs.
Bill Douglas was imo one of the best and most neglected filmakers of the last 50yrs and certainly the best working class Scottish one :). His output is rather sparse, rarely shown and hard to find due to a lack of any great commercial success.
While it may seem slow, quiet and uneventful to modern eyes more accustomed to frantic camera work and dramatic choppy cuts, Douglas is one of those directors who treats almost every frame as a still life work of art. He also allows silence and mood to convey a message that is often stronger than dialouge.
A highly recomended 3 hours of quality film making about a subject that is unfortunatly fading from the memories of many.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
Their Story
"In 1834 six Dorset agricultural labourers, united together to - "preserve ourselves, our wives, and our children, from utter degradation and starvation".
News of their formation of the Tolpuddle Lodge of the Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society enraged the draconian local magistrate and landowner James Frampton who wrote to the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, to inform him that labourers were being induced to "enter into combinations of a dangerous and alarming kind, to which they are bound by oaths".
Although Trade Unions had been declared legal in England the six men were charged under the 1797 Mutiny Act and at their trial they were found guilty of administering illegal oaths. The judge unjustly sentenced them to seven years transportation to the penal colonies of Australia and Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania)."
http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/images/martyrs_names.gif
"I am told that the working man ought to remain still and let their cause work its way - that God in his good time will bring it about for him. However, this is not my creed; I believe that God works by means and men, and that he expects every man who feels an interest in the subject to take an active part in bringing about and hastening on so important a period. Under such an impression, I would call upon every working man in England , and especially the agricultural labourers, who appear to be the lowest, degraded, and the least active, to shake off that supineness and indifference to their interests, which leaves them in the situation of slaves. Let every working man come forward, from east to west, from north to south; unite firmly but peaceably together as the heart of one man; let them be determined to have a voice in, and form part of, the British nation; then no longer would the interests of the millions be sacrificed for the gain of a few, but the blessings resulting from such a change would be felt by us, our prosperity, even to generations yet unborn".
Tolpuddle, August, 1837 George Loveless.
When sentenced to seven years' transportation, George Loveless wrote on a scrap of paper the following lines:"
"God is our guide! from field, from wave, From plough, from anvil, and from loom; We come, our country's rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction's doom: We raise the watch-word liberty; We will, we will, we will be free!"
Lots of original texts available here:-
http://tolpuddlemartyrs.online-today.co.uk/
Great to see Bill Douglas's Comrades re-released by the BFI this year to commemorate the 175 aniversary of the trial of the Tollpudle Martyrs.
Bill Douglas was imo one of the best and most neglected filmakers of the last 50yrs and certainly the best working class Scottish one :). His output is rather sparse, rarely shown and hard to find due to a lack of any great commercial success.
While it may seem slow, quiet and uneventful to modern eyes more accustomed to frantic camera work and dramatic choppy cuts, Douglas is one of those directors who treats almost every frame as a still life work of art. He also allows silence and mood to convey a message that is often stronger than dialouge.
A highly recomended 3 hours of quality film making about a subject that is unfortunatly fading from the memories of many.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
Their Story
"In 1834 six Dorset agricultural labourers, united together to - "preserve ourselves, our wives, and our children, from utter degradation and starvation".
News of their formation of the Tolpuddle Lodge of the Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society enraged the draconian local magistrate and landowner James Frampton who wrote to the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, to inform him that labourers were being induced to "enter into combinations of a dangerous and alarming kind, to which they are bound by oaths".
Although Trade Unions had been declared legal in England the six men were charged under the 1797 Mutiny Act and at their trial they were found guilty of administering illegal oaths. The judge unjustly sentenced them to seven years transportation to the penal colonies of Australia and Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania)."
http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/images/martyrs_names.gif
"I am told that the working man ought to remain still and let their cause work its way - that God in his good time will bring it about for him. However, this is not my creed; I believe that God works by means and men, and that he expects every man who feels an interest in the subject to take an active part in bringing about and hastening on so important a period. Under such an impression, I would call upon every working man in England , and especially the agricultural labourers, who appear to be the lowest, degraded, and the least active, to shake off that supineness and indifference to their interests, which leaves them in the situation of slaves. Let every working man come forward, from east to west, from north to south; unite firmly but peaceably together as the heart of one man; let them be determined to have a voice in, and form part of, the British nation; then no longer would the interests of the millions be sacrificed for the gain of a few, but the blessings resulting from such a change would be felt by us, our prosperity, even to generations yet unborn".
Tolpuddle, August, 1837 George Loveless.
When sentenced to seven years' transportation, George Loveless wrote on a scrap of paper the following lines:"
"God is our guide! from field, from wave, From plough, from anvil, and from loom; We come, our country's rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction's doom: We raise the watch-word liberty; We will, we will, we will be free!"
Lots of original texts available here:-
http://tolpuddlemartyrs.online-today.co.uk/