Wednesday 23 November 2011

Went the Day Well?

Went the Day Well is one of my very favourite British films. As a piece of wartime propaganda, it is superb; it plays upon and accentuates the (very natural) prejudices of the "filthy hun" and transposes them into the idyllic setting of a remote village community. It has a believable cast of time-specific characters who represent the full range of a rigid class-based English society - and it is interesting that it is the 'lord of the manor'figure who turns out to be the quisling. It shows the ordinary people of wartime Britain to be down to earth and immensely courageous in the face of Teutonic outrage. It shows that the villagers can be just as ruthless as their enemies in defence of freedom and the British way of life. The fact that it features performances by actors who later became household names (Thora Hird, Harry Fowler) is incidental. This is a war film set in surroundings that are just about still recognisable today. It is all the more powerful for it.

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