Swallows and Amazons (1974) – DVD re-release

July 29th, 2014
Author: Meredith Taylor

1913-3 copyWatching Arthur Ransome’s children’s classic “Swallows and Amazons” makes you realise just how much the world has changed, even since the seventies, when Claude Whatham’s screen adaptation was made. Those simple summer days of innocent childhood adventure now seem almost otherworldly forty years later, somehow summing up the quintessence of Britishness.

A group of children go on a summer escapade with their mother (that classic feminine icon of Englishness,Virginia McKenna) where they sail off to an island in the Lake District and pretend to be pirates. Here the story is set in 1929 and Virginia’s husband is an Officer away in the Navy. The children:John, Susan, Titty and Roger (Simon West, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville and Stephen Grendon) take their family dinghy ‘Swallow’ and set off to an uninhabited island in the Cumbrian lake district. But when they get there, they discover a rival gang (the two Blackett sisters) are also exploring Wild Cat Island and so the holiday adventure begins, not with computer but a real experience. swallows_3 copy

Claude Whatham’s adaptation stays faithful to the original with its simple and uncomplicated narrative structure and fictional characters such as an old pirate Uncle Jim (Ronald Fraser) who rather hams things up in contrast to the naturalistic performances of the others that feel almost unscripted thanks to clever writing on the part of David Wood.  So although the piece feels dated there’s considerable charm, nostalgia and fun to be had for all ages in a story where kids let their imaginations run wild to create their own incredible world of adventure. MT

OUT ON DVD/BLU 4th August 2014 WITH A NEW RESTORATION SCREENING AT HASTINGS PIRATE DAY, THE ELECTRIC PALACE CINEMA ON 20 JULY 2014.

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