Culloden Case Essay

Culloden is not an action film, or a historical documentary, it is a historical deconstruction.   It serves to retell the events of the battle of Culloden as they really occurred.   Culloden was not the patriotic battles filled with the heroes that are portrayed in history books, it was an occurrence of bloody mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing. Through filming the events in a documentary style and vividly reconstructing events, the Director of Culloden, Peter Watkins, represents the horror of war in a true and realistic manner and allows the viewer to feel as though they are witnessing events first hand.   This technique, coupled with rapid editing, loud noises and tight close-ups brings the horror of the events home to the viewer and any images of the battle that a viewer may have previously held are completely lost. Within the documentary the deficiencies of the myths contained in history books and stories are revealed.   The character of Bonnie Prince Charlie, for example, is not portrayed as the romantic hero with whom people traditionally associate, rather he is revealed as an incompetent fool who self obsession leads to the murder of innocent civilians and soldiers. The presence of the British historian commenting on events from a safe distance is aimed squarely at pinpointing exactly how this reality becomes distorted over time.   The disjoint between the events on the field and the historian’s reaction to them serves to show how events such as this are dramatized.   Even in the midst of the bloodshed and the violence the historian views events with bias, commenting on them in an animated and vibrant fashion. The film draws the viewer’s attention to a number of factors that are traditionally forgotten in the heroic tales of war; it is an extremely terrifying event where innocent people die, the soldiers themselves suffer horrendously from the events and dreadful mistakes are made.   Whilst the bravery of the men who fight these wars should be remembered, so should the reality of what occurred on the battlefields.