Culloden 1746 (1994) starring Brian Blessed, Iain Cuthbertson, Mathew Zajac, Fish, Brian Donald, Sandy Welch, Peter Gordon directed by Graham Holloway Movie Review

Culloden 1746 (1994)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Brian Blessed in Culloden 1746 (1994) (aka: Chasing the Deer)

History Buff Cinema

Let me begin by mentioning "Braveheart" a hugely popular movie amongst movie lovers but often mocked by those whose interest is in the dramatization of historical stories. I mention that because "Culloden 1746" which is also known as "Chasing the Deer" is the other way around; a movie whose focus is on historical accuracy and not on entertainment for the masses. Now I will admit I am a movie lover not a historian but am willing to pretty much give anything a go when it comes to movies, but as a movie lover I found "Culloden 1746" understandably hard work.

For those who have read some of my other movie reviews will know my knowledge of history is slim thanks to the dull text book lessons of the 80s and as such knew next to nothing about the true story before hand. Having watched "Culloden 1746" I hate to say that I knew little more after I had finished and it is not because it doesn't tell the story but does so in such a way that for non history buffs it is hard to follow and get into. In fact having watched "Culloden 1746" I would say that you need to know the story before watching in order to be able to understand what is going on. It is especially hard to follow for non history buffs with so many different characters to follow and unless you know their significance to start with it is hard to keep track off.

Now in truth I expected "Culloden 1746" to be hard work as I knew it was a movie more concerned with accuracy over entertainment. But there are other things which make it hard work such as the editing and camera work which often feels rushed even for a low budget production. And that is a shame as "Culloden 1746" certainly has the look which I imagine came through the help of several historical societies and the acting from a bunch of actors who I had mostly never heard of is not that bad.

What this all boils down to is that "Culloden 1746" is a movie not for movie lovers but for history buffs who are disappointed by Hollywood's handling of history and yearn for more historically accurate dramatizations.


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