A Field in England
After using Whitehead to locate the treasure, which it turns out is near the camp, O'Neill orders Jacob and Friend to dig for it while he leaves Cutler to supervise, and goes to sleep in a tent.Reaching where Friend's corpse is, O'Neill pursues Whitehead, who ingests a considerable quantity of mushrooms, heightening his awareness but suffering a hallucinatory experience, wherein he conjures a violent wind to blow away the camp's tent.Wearing O'Neill's clothes, he gathers his master's stolen documents and returns to the hedgerow where he first met Cutler, Jacob and Friend, from which battle sounds are rising.Wheatley said A Field in England combines "the more psychedelic elements" from his previous films Kill List and Sightseers and "weaves in our take on historical drama" with the English Civil War.The Hollywood Reporter said, "A Field in England will mark the first time a homegrown title has been released simultaneously in theaters, on DVD, free TV and video-on-demand."The site's consensus reads, "Recklessly assembled and occasionally compelling in spite of itself, A Field In England showcases a singularly brilliant voice in British cinema"."[20] Stephen Dalton, reviewing for The Hollywood Reporter, said, "A strikingly original historical thriller spiced with occult mysticism and mind-warping hallucinations, British director Ben Wheatley's fourth feature has all the midnight-movie intensity of a future cult classic."Dalton noted flaws in the film but said that beside them, A Field in England is a rich, strange, hauntingly intense work from a highly original writer-director team."[3] Peter Debruge of Variety called A Field in England "a defiantly unclassifiable cross-genre experiment ... that simultaneously reinvents and regurgitates low-budget British cinema as it goes".[19] The Independent's Romney said, "The screenplay contains much juicy period dialogue, although the gist is often lost amid hectic cuts, drunken camera moves and the men's habit of grabbing each other by the throat."[20] The Hollywood Reporter's Dalton wrote, "One of the film's pleasures is its rich dialogue—a ripe blend of Shakespearean finery, salty swearing and lowbrow toilet humor."[20] The Hollywood Reporter commended the "terrific" cinematography of "ravishing monochrome vistas punctuated by extreme close-ups of plants, animals, insects and tormented human faces".[21] The Independent wrote that the editors' "big firework display" was that of a psychedelic experience, which was "a stroboscopic pandemonium of mirror images, flash cuts, bursts of light".[20] The Hollywood Reporter said, "Sound designer Martin Pavey and composer Jim Williams also deserve special mention for underpinning these ostensibly calm pastoral scenes with a constant undertow of clanging, churning menace.