''Revolution'' is a 1985 British

historical drama film A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swa ...

directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Robert Dillon, and starring

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

, Donald Sutherland, and Nastassja Kinski. The film stars Pacino as a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

fur trapper who involuntarily gets enrolled in the Revolutionary forces during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. ''Revolution'' received a great deal of negative reviews upon release, and was a box office bomb; its release was delayed in Pacino's native

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Due to the disappointment, Pacino took a four-year hiatus from films until 1989's ''

Sea of Love Sea of Love may refer to * ''Sea of Love'' (film), a 1989 American thriller film * "Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips song), a 1959 song by Phil Phillips and The Twilights, covered by many performers * "Sea of Love" (The National song), 2013 * ''The S ...

''.

Plot

Fur trapper Tom Dobb reluctantly participates in the American Revolutionary War after his young son Ned joins the Army as a drummer boy, against his father's wishes. Later, his son is captured by the British, and taken by the strict Sergeant Major Peasy to replace some dead British drummer boys. Dobb attempts to find him, and along the way, becomes convinced that he must help fight for the freedom of the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centu ...

, alongside the disgraced and idealistic aristocrat Daisy McConnahay.

Cast

as Tom Dobb * Donald Sutherland as Sgt. Maj. Peasy * Nastassja Kinski as Daisy McConnahay * Dexter Fletcher as Ned Dobb * Sid Owen as Young Ned Dobb * Joan Plowright as Mrs. McConnahay * Dave King as Mr. McConnahay *

Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style eponymously ...

as Sgt. Jones * John Wells as Corty *

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...

as Liberty Woman *

Richard O'Brien Richard Timothy Smith. known professionally as Richard O'Brien, is a British-New Zealand actor, writer, musician, composer, and television presenter. He wrote the musical stage show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' in 1973, which has remained in conti ...

as Lord Hampton * Pietro Giovanni Lantrua as Impoverished Extra * Paul Brooke as Lord Darling * Frank Windsor as Gen. Washington * Jesse Birdsall as Cpl./Sgt. Peasy * Larry Sellers as Honchwah *

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

as Ongwata * Robbie Coltrane as New York Burgher

Development

The film was the idea of producer Irwin Winkler who felt the American Revolution would make an ideal subject for a film. After having just made ''The Right Stuff'' Winkler did not want to tell a story about real people so decided to focus on a fictional father and son. Winkler had a development deal at Warner Bros and they agreed to finance a script by Robert Dillon. Warners did not like the script enough to agree to finance it, so Winkler bought it back, attached Hugh Hudson as director and took the project to other studios to see if they were interested. He showed the script to Sandy Lieberson of Goldcrest, who was enthusiastic. Goldcrest agreed to finance provided a US studio could be brought in to co produce. Warner Bros agreed.

Production

The film was produced by the British company Goldcrest, and was filmed largely in the old dock area of the English port town of

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, nor ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

. The main battles scenes were filmed at

Burrator Reservoir Burrator Reservoir is a reservoir on the south side of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. It is one of a number of reservoirs and dams that were built over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries in the area now covered by Dartmoor Nati ...

on Dartmoor in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

and on the coastal cliff top near Challaborough Bay, South Devon where a wooden fort was built. Military extras were recruited from ex-servicemen mainly from the

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

area. Many other scenes were filmed in the battle training area near

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24, ...

, Norfolk, with extras being recruited from around the King's Lynn area. Melton Constable Hall in Norfolk was also used for some scenes.

Reception

Box office

''Revolution'' cost $28 million to make, and proved to be a box-office disaster, only grossing $346,761 in the United States. Goldcrest Films invested £15,603,000 in the film and received £5,987,000, causing them to lose £9,616,000.

Critical

The film was also a critical letdown, with many criticizing the performances (especially the accents), writing, and choice to shoot a story of American history in England.

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

's staff commented, "Watching ''Revolution'' is a little like visiting a museum – it looks good without really being alive. The film doesn’t tell a story so much as it uses characters to illustrate what the American Revolution has come to mean." A reviewer for the UK-based ''

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'' called it "an almost inconceivable disaster which tries for a worm's eye view of the American Revolution ..maybe the original script had a shape and a grasp of events. If so, it has gone. There has clearly been drastic cutting, and nothing is left but a cortege of fragments and mismatched cuts. It's also the first 70 mm movie that looks as if it was shot hand-held on 16 mm and blown up for the big screen. Director? I didn't catch the credit. Was there one?"

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "a mess, but one that's so giddily misguided that it's sometimes a good deal of fun for all of the wrong reasons. Characters who have met briefly early in the film later stage hugely emotional, tearful reconciliations." Pauline Kael commented that "everything in this picture, which goes from the beginning of the American War of Independence in 1776 to the end of combat in 1783, seems dissociated. The director, Hugh Hudson, plunges us into gritty, muddy restagings of famous campaigns, but we don't find out what's going on in these campaigns, or what their importance is in the course of the war. ..Hudson and the scriptwriter, Robert Dillon, present the war as a primal Oedipal revolt of the Colonies against the parent country, and the relationships of the characters are designed in Oedipal pairs; Hudson also stages torture orgies to indicate how sadistic the redcoats are, and scenes are devised to set up echoes of the ''Rocky'' series and '' Rambo''. This is a certifiably loony picture; it's so bad it puts you in a state of shock." On

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, the film holds a rating of 10% based on 20 reviews with the consensus: "Unlikely to inspire any fervor with its miscast ensemble and ponderous script, ''Revolution'' is a star-spangled bummer."

Accolades

''Revolution'' was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards: * Worst Picture (lost to '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'') * Worst Director - Hugh Hudson (lost to George Cosmatos) * Worst Actor -

(lost to

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

) * Worst Musical Score -

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

(lost to Vince DiCola) The film won the Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Picture.

Director's cut

''Revolution'' was rush-released in December 1985 for the Christmas market and for

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

consideration. Dissatisfied with the version of the film released to theatres, Hugh Hudson released a new cut, ''Revolution: Revisited'', on DVD in 2009. This has an added narration by Pacino (recorded for this release) and numerous scenes have been trimmed or deleted outright (running at 115 minutes, the Director's Cut is approximately 10 minutes shorter than the theatrical version). Also included is a conversation with Pacino and Hudson discussing the film being rushed for a U.S. Christmas release, being trashed by the critics, and other issues relating to making and releasing the film. The film was also re-released in the UK in 2012 by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

in a

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

/DVD combo pack. This edition came with both cuts of the film, as well as a booklet with essays written by Nick Redman, Michael Brooke and critic

Philip French Philip Neville French OBE (28 August 1933 – 27 October 2015) was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio producer, and later a film crit ...

, who argues that the film was a victim of bad publicity and cultural misunderstandings, and regards the 'Revisited' cut as a 'masterpiece'.

References

Notes

External links

* * *
BFI page on ''Revolution''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Revolution 1985 films 1980s adventure drama films 1980s historical drama films 1980s war drama films American Revolutionary War films British adventure drama films British historical drama films British war drama films Films scored by John Corigliano Films directed by Hugh Hudson Films set in the 1770s Films set in the 1780s Films set in New York (state) Films set in the Thirteen Colonies Films shot in Devon Films shot in Norfolk Films produced by Irwin Winkler Goldcrest Films films War epic films Warner Bros. films 1985 drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s British films