CROMWELL (FILM)

'''Cromwell''' is a 1970 film, based on the life of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of Great Britain and Ireland. It stars Richard Harris in the title role, with Alec Guinness as King Charles I of England, Robert Morley as Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester and Timothy Dalton as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

Contents

Plot summary

Information

Awards

External link

Plot summary

Disgusted with the policies of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell plans to take his family to the New World. But on the eve of their departure, he is drawn into the tangled web of religion and politics that will result in the English Civil War.

Information

Although publicity for the movie boasted that it had been made "after ten years' research", it has been criticised for its historical inaccuracies:

★ Most glaringly, it seriously exaggerates Cromwell's role in the events leading up to the outbreak of the English Civil War, e.g., he was not one of the Members of Parliament whom the King tried to arrest when he entered the House of Commons.

★ It puts forward a dated and inaccurate stereotype of Roundheads and Cavaliers wearing different clothing. In reality, they dressed the same.

★ Both the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Manchester are inaccurately shown as sitting in the House of Commons, when they would actually have sat in the House of Lords.

★ Cromwell is shown as a Colonel at the Battle of Edgehill when in truth he was only a Captain.

★ Cromwell was named Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces in the movie. Sir Thomas Fairfax was the actual head of the New Model Army during the English Civil War, but he is shown as Cromwell's subordinate.

★ Several characters appear in the film after their actual historical deaths, i.e., Thomas Wentworth in 1642 (he was executed in 1641), John Pym in 1646 (he died in 1643), the Earl of Essex in 1648/9 (he had died in 1646). Cromwell's son Oliver is depicted as having been killed during the Battle of Naseby - Oliver had been dead for some time before that battle. Rather than falling in combat, he in fact died of smallpox during spring 1644, while in garrison at Newport Pagnell. To compound this mistake, the elder Oliver is seen at his son's gravestone towards the end of the film, which clearly reads the younger Oliver's death year as 1644. The Battle of Naseby took place in 1645. (However, the dates during which most of the events take place are not even mentioned in the film, so that the historical inaccuracies concerning them would go completely unnoticed by people who are not experts on the subject.)

★ The New Model Army is shown in black and gold hooped coats in place of its trademark red coat.

★ The Battle of Naseby is 'reconstructed' with the New Model Army's numerical superiority of 3:2 or maybe even 2:1, being reversed to give the Royalists the superior numbers.

★ It shows Cromwell personally arresting the king in the name of Parliament, but at the end of the First Civil War the king surrendered to the Scottish army and was only handed over to the English parliamentary army some time later.

★ It puts the famous soldiers' prayer: "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not forget me" of Sir Jacob Astley into Cromwell's mouth.

★ In one of the early scenes, Cromwell tells Charles I that the kind of government that he believes England should have is a democracy. It is generally accepted that Cromwell made no such suggestion to the King.

★ Near the end of the film, Cromwell tells the Rump Parliament that they had six years to form a new government after the execution of Charles I. In truth, they had ''four'' years.

★ Henry Ireton (played by Michael Jayston) appears with a delegation of MPs to offer Cromwell the throne in the movie. In actuality, by the time Cromwell was actually offered the crown -- in 1657 -- Ireton himself had been dead for nearly six years. Also, in the film Oliver dismisses the idea of becoming King instantly, laughing it off as absurd after what he fought for. In real life, Oliver took the offer very seriously, truly believing that England needed a King, and took a whole six weeks to turn down the offer, which he did with a heavy heart and quite reluctantly.

Awards

★ 1971: Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Vittorio Nino Novarese)

External link

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