''Apaches'' is a 1977 British short

public information film Public information films (PIFs) are a series of government-commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom. The name is sometimes also applied, ''faute de mieux'', to similar films from other countries, ...

directed by John Mackenzie, written by Neville Smith and produced by John Arnold and Leon Clore for the

Central Office of Information The Central Office of Information (COI) was the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its chief executive reported to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was a non-ministerial department, and became an executive agency and a ...

(COI) for the

Health and Safety Executive The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a British public body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare. It has additionally adopted a research role into occupational risks in Great B ...

(HSE). The 26-minute-long film deals with the subject of the dangers to children on

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

s, and has been seen in schools all over Britain, as well as Canada, Australia and the United States. The film follows the misadventures of a group of six young children playing on a farm. It is narrated in-character by Danny.

Plot

Six young children – Kim, Sharon, Michael, Danny, Tom and Robert – from a rural British village enjoy playing on a nearby farm pretending to be "

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

warriors". Throughout the film, the children all die in various different accidents due to their carelessness; Kim is run over by a tractor that she was standing on after falling off of it, Tom drowns in a

slurry pit A slurry pit, also known as a farm slurry pit, slurry tank, slurry lagoon or slurry store, is a hole, dam, or circular concrete structure where farmers gather all their animal waste together with other unusable organic matter, such as hay and ...

that he falls into, Sharon dies from accidentally drinking chemicals while pretending it was alcohol, Robert is crushed by a falling gate that Michael knocked over, and Danny crashes a tractor he is riding on into a

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

. Danny continues his narration after his death, and talks calmly about his family all arriving for a "party" being prepared earlier in the film. Michael, also present, is revealed to be Danny's cousin – the only child not to have been killed by his own reckless behavior, despite Danny having described Michael as "daft". Danny's voice fades into a ghostly echo as he sadly says he wishes he could have gone to the party. The closing credits show a long list of real children who had died in actual farm accidents in the year before ''Apaches'' was made.

Cast

* Robbie Oubridge as Danny * Ian Scrace as Michael * Wayne Tapsfield as Robert * Sharon Smart as Sharon * Fion Smith as Tom * Louise O'Hara as Kim

Production

The film was shot on 16mm film at a Home Counties farm in February 1977, and child actors were selected from a school in

Maidenhead, Berkshire Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...

Release

It was shown extensively in the Southern, Westward, Anglia and

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regions, before being shown either on film or videocassette in primary schools.

Home viewing availability

''Apaches'' was made available for home viewing by the

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

in 2010, along with other such Public Information Films of the time such as '' Building Sites Bite'', on the compilation DVD ''COI Collection Vol 4: Stop! Look! Listen!'' The film was later included on the Blu-ray compilation ''The Best of the COI''. It is also included on some DVD and BD releases of ''

The Long Good Friday ''The Long Good Friday'' is a 1980 British gangster film directed by John Mackenzie from a screenplay by Barrie Keeffe. Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, the film, set in London, weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, inc ...

'' (also the work of director John Mackenzie and cinematographer Phil Méheux).

References

External links

*
Production details of Apaches
* {{John Mackenzie 1977 in British television 1977 television films British educational films Films about child death Films about Native Americans Films directed by John Mackenzie (film director) Films set on farms ITV children's television shows Public information films 1970s British films 1970s educational films 1970s English-language films English-language documentary films