University of Virginia Library

War Atrocities Focus
Of Scottish Battle Film

By Steve Squire

—ed.

Recent history has made as very
concerned with the atrocities that
are committed in war, but perhaps
this concern has been at the
expense of the realization that war
itself is an atrocity. It is upon war
- why men fight, what war does to
those it touches and the
justifications warriors find for their
acts - that Peter Watkins focuses
his attention in The Battle of
Culloden.

Originally produced for BBC
television, as was Watkins' earlier
The War Game. Culloden has never
caught the same attention as
surrounded The War Game (which
the BBC refused at first to air
because it was so graphic). This is
unfortunate because Culloden, in
its stark, authentic depiction of an
18th century battle, is a film that
sears the mind with images that can
never be forgotten.

Few films are as realistic as
Culloden, but the film's
authenticity only points up the
indictment the film makes of war.

Culloden was not a major battle
by 20th century standards. The
British lost less than a hundred
men, the Scots over a thousand (the
bulk of these cut down by artillery)
- but it more than ended Bonnie
Prince Charlie's rebellion, it was the
end of an entire way of life in
Highland Scotland.

Yet the fate of a vanquished
people is as old as history and the
real horror lies in the fact that
although times change but wars and
the arguments for them go on
virtually unchanged in basics.

Watkins presents many of these
standard arguments the
sociological ("these people are
different, not like us at all, and
they want what we have"), the
religious ("God is on our side"), the
political ("these men are rebels")
and so on. The effect is chilling
because we hear similar talk today.

The most horrifying part of the
film is that which deals with the
aftermath of Culloden when the
Highlands were "pacified." In one
scene Watkins epitomizes all that
war can ever be to non-combatants
when he shows the fate of a
highland family brought to bay by
a British patrol.

There do not exist many films
that can be considered required
viewing, but The Battle of Culloden
is one such film. Whether one
"likes" it or not, one will never be
able to erase it from the mind, and
the memory of this film may
perhaps in some way give pause to
those who would so readily
advocate war as a "solution" to
national and international
problems.