Product: The Bill Douglas Trilogy (1972)
Rating: 1.0
from grey misery to black misery
Why would anyone who had had such a miserable childhood want to memorialise it on film? I grew up in Scotland during the War but it was not miserable like that . Far from it. This movie depressed me and I would recommend that it be burned and forgotten forever. Most of the time you wonder what is going on. Were it not for the sleeve notes I would have no idea. This is not entertainment. As for accuracy, the boys never wore a jacket. There are precious few days in Scotland when you can go out without a jacket or coat. Those boys would have been shivering most of the time. The fire they lit at the beginning with a few sticks and 4 lumps of coal would not have burned for half an hour after which they would have frozen to death. Night time temperatures in Scotland in houses with no central heating, were at or below freezing. What those other reviewers saw in this movie I have no idea. I saw nothing but bleakness, bleakness and more bleakness. Poetic and musical? Which language are we speaking? All the poetry of a wet paper bag and all the music of a death wheeze.