• Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Flickering Myth Films
    • FMTV
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Socials
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Bluesky
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
    • Linktree
    • X
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Articles & Opinions
  • Write for Us
  • The Baby in the Basket

2018 BFI London Film Festival Review – Peterloo

October 25, 2018 by Tori Brazier

Waterloo, 2018.

Directed by Mike Leigh.
Starring Maxine Peake, Rory Kinnear, Neil Bell, Pearce Quigley, David Moorst, Rachel Finnegan, Tom Meredith, Simona Bitmate, Robert Wilfort, Karl Johnson, Sam Troughton, Alastair Mackenzie, David Bamber and Tim McInnerny.

SYNOPSIS:

The story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester.

 Peterloo is a film of both epic and regional importance, telling the tale of the massacre at St Peter’s Field in Manchester in August 1819 when 60,000 workers turned out to demand parliamentary reform and listen to sympathetic, radical orators. Its execution, though, is sadly a bit muddled.

An interesting and important piece of history to translate to the screen, director Mike Leigh has probably overestimated the audience’s appetite for historical accuracy and multiple arguments: a good three-quarters of the film is given over to various groups of people having discussions and meetings in many different rooms, voicing their dissatisfaction. It’s only broken up by more panicked discussions among government officials. At over two and a half hours in length, this makes things a little hard-going.

It’s a great British cast of who’s who (would you expect any less in a Mike Leigh film?) from Maxine Peake to Rory Kinnear to Tim McInnerny and David Bamber, but it is a little difficult to get a grasp of who the supporting characters actually are and the more nuanced points of view that some hold, other than the basic pro-reformers vs the government standpoint.

 Maxine Peake’s family – in all their full-throat Lancastrian glory – are introduced at the film’s beginning, as well as being one of the focuses at St Peter’s Field, thereby taking on the role of the sympathetic ‘everyfamily’ caught up in the upheaval but eager for the change their livelihoods so desperately need. The family’s son Joseph (David Moorst) opens the film, dragging himself – literally – home from the Napoleonic Wars, where he saw action at the battle at Waterloo. It’s a really fascinating idea to show the effects the fighting has had on him (something we’re aware of in the twenty-first century, but likely didn’t give a fig about in the early 1800s), as well as his limited prospects as a poor soldier in these harsh economic times. It also means he provides a literal and contextual link from the battleground at Waterloo to the carnage at St Peter’s Field, with which it was so infamously compared.

Peterloo is packed to the rafters with real-life characters including orators who spoke at the protest, government officials who were seeking to squash it and journalists who reported on the aftermath of its tragic events. While authenticity and the power of speech are fine aims for Peterloo, it does not help in its signposting of who the major players were at that time. A lack of background on many figures during the film, while more natural, visceral and accommodating for character study, does mean that it would take more than one viewing of Peterloo to fully get a handle on who is who.

Rory Kinnear is suitably self-serving and cool as orator Henry Hunt, whose motives for involvement in the protest are clearly two-fold, striving as he does to be noticed and written about in his white hat. Karl Johnson, an actor whose face you will recognise after years of TV shows such as Rome and Lark Rise to Candleford but might struggle to name, is outstanding as the seemingly timid but internally steely Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary. Tim McInnerny also deserves mention as a suitably grotesque and over-stuffed Prince Regent.

Its dense historical narrative hinders Peterloo’s watchability as a film but the events it retells are a compelling part of British history, and they are performed but a talented and wide-reaching cast.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Tori Brazier

Filed Under: London Film Festival, Movies, Reviews, Tori Brazier Tagged With: 2018 BFI London Film Festival, Alastair Mackenzie, David Bamber, David Moorst, Karl Johnson, Maxine Peake, Mike Leigh, Neil Bell, Pearce Quigley, Peterloo, Rachel Finnegan, Robert Wilfort, Rory Kinnear, Sam Troughton, Simona Bitmate, Tim McInnerny, Tom Meredith

FMTV – Watch Our Latest Video Here

WATCH OUR MOVIE NOW FOR FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

10 Great Recent Horror Movies You Need To See

Forgotten Horror Movie Gems From 25 Years Ago

In a Violent Nature and Other Slasher Movies That Subvert the Genre

The Enviable “Worst” Films of David Fincher

Ranking Video Game Movie Sequels From Worst to Best

The Essential Exorcism Movies of the 21st Century

Ten Essential Films of the 1940s

Great Vampire Movies You May Have Missed

Sirens from Space: Species and Under The Skin

10 Badass Action Movies You Might Have Missed

Top Stories:

4K Ultra HD Review – Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition

Movie Review – F1: The Movie (2025)

Batman Begins at 20: How it reinvented franchise filmmaking

Movie Review – Elio (2025)

Linda Hamilton battles aliens in trailer for sci-fi action thriller Osiris

4K Ultra HD Review – Dark City (1998)

Movie Review – Bride Hard (2025)

Ten Unmade Film Masterpieces

STREAM FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

FEATURED POSTS:

The Essential Man vs. AI Movies

Incredible Character Actors Who Elevate Every Film

10 Great Forgotten Erotic Thrillers You Need To See

10 Great Comedic Talents Wasted By Hollywood

Our Partners

  • Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Flickering Myth Films
    • FMTV
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Socials
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Bluesky
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
    • Linktree
    • X
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

© Flickering Myth Limited. All rights reserved. The reproduction, modification, distribution, or republication of the content without permission is strictly prohibited. Movie titles, images, etc. are registered trademarks / copyright their respective rights holders. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you can read this, you don't need glasses.


 

Flickering MythLogo Header Menu
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Articles & Opinions
  • Write for Us
  • The Baby in the Basket