Peterloo, written and directed by Mike Leigh - 7.7 out of 10

Peterloo, written and directed by Mike Leigh

7.7 out of 10

Although Peterloo deals with some familiar, cardinal themes like injustice, abuse of the “little man and woman”, it does not seem to be as mesmerizing, fascinating as Naked, Secrets & Lies, Topsy Turvy, All or Nothing, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year or Mr. Turner.

Since Mike Leigh has directed the eight aforementioned masterpieces, it is already much more than most filmmakers have ever managed and he may well be on the short list of ten other geniuses with similar accomplishments.

Daniel Kahneman mentions the “regression to the mean” in his chef d’oeuvre Thinking Fast and Slow, in the context of training Israeli pilots in the IDF, where an officer argued that once he shouts at those who made mistakes, they do not err again.

It is in fact this definition that applies : “In statistics, regression toward (or to) the mean is the phenomenon that arises if a variable is extreme on its first measurement but closer to the mean or average on its second measurement and if it is extreme on its second measurement but closer to the average on its first.”

For Peterloo, the regression to the mean could be taken in the sense that Mike Leigh has given the world such exhilarating – although many dealing with tragedy, destitution, Secrets and Lies, loneliness in another Year, the private issues in the life of a genius in Mr. Turner, downfall in the case of a woman that helps others with illegal abortions in Vera Drake – works that at one stage, he must make a feature that is not as sublime as the others.

The critics, with a Metascore of 70, which means that on average, professionals have been more than pleased by the motion picture, if not overwhelmed, nevertheless have acclaimed this film.

The tragedy of the Peterloo Massacre is unfolding in the film that makes an excellent case for the accusation of the British officials and service men – some of whom have acted monstrously, killing with inhuman brutishness innocent bystanders and demonstrators.

A rally organized to protest poverty and injustice, where a famous speaker, in favor of Mahatma Gandhi style of opposition was about to speak becomes one of the most loathsome pages in British history.

Women and children take part, in a crowd that was estimated at 60,000, and many are killed with the sword, or simply trampled under the feet of the charging cavalry – one of the many gruesome scenes has one infant smashed by a horse riding above.

In this cinephile’s opinion, part of the problem is that the characters on the wrong side of history are presented with a thick brush and repellent as they surely must have been, they become caricatures.

Take the Prince Regent, portrayed by a wondrous actor, seen recently in the excellent Agatha and the Truth of Murder - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/03/agatha-and-truth-of-murder-by-tom.html - Tim McInnerny becomes a buffoon, recalling the orange fool in sitting in The White House now.

Which could mean that the portrait is accurate and the instructions from Mike Leigh were more than correct, or, on the other hand, that the artistic license was taken too far and the regent becomes a cartoonish personage.

It looks like the ordeal, catastrophe was cataclysmic enough, without depicting the villains with such violent colors.

Indeed, at times it may even feel like they were so flawed, so poorly gifted and actually challenged that the operation may serve not to absolve them, but make their poor intellect a case for the defense.

The regent, magistrates, generals, home secretary and many, if not most others in key positions were such simpletons and pithecanthropus that they look like they could not know any better.

In America, in some states they execute people at tender ages and when their IQ is as low as it gets, but in other parts, they do not gas those who have an IQ lower than 70 – I think – which might apply to the figures in the film.

Nonetheless, the reality was surely different and this is why this viewer feels that the choice made in regards to these infamous characters was not the best one.