My review of this film adaptation of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood first appeared in TheGayUK in October 2015.
I
studied Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood”
for my English A Level, rather more years ago now than I choose to mention and
it came as quite a surprise to me to realise that I still remembered, almost
word for word the narrator’s first long speech, beautifully spoken here by Rhys
Ifans.
“Under Milk
Wood” is really an extended dramatic poem for voices. It was first conceived as
a radio play, commissioned by the BBC in 1954, with Richard Burton voicing the
narrator. Later it was turned into a stage play, and there is at least one
previous film (1972) with Burton reprising his narrator role, and with such
luminaries as Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole and Glynis Johns amongst the
cast.
Whilst
remaining absolutely true to Thomas’s original text, the screenplay of this new
film, brings out more than any I’ve seen or heard, the sheer earthy, lascivious
and hilariously funny filthiness of Thomas’s dreamscape, a true celebration of
the joys of sex. Only most of the sex in this story takes place in people’s
minds, their fantasies and desires brought out in full, luscious technicolour
glory.
The film looks superb, for which director of photography Andy Hollis
deserves enormous credit.
Director
Kevin Allen has at his disposal an excellent cast of Welsh actors, many of them
faces well-known from TV, all perfect for their roles. Rhys Ifans, who also
doubles as Captain Cat, is quite as effective as Richard Burton in his long
opening speech, his accent, though perfectly intelligible, just that bit more
Welsh, where Burton, targeting a 1950s audience, slightly Anglicised his tones.
Charlotte
Church, making a very successful screen debut, is cast as Polly Garter. She has
a plump, rounded, wholesome sexiness that is absolutely perfect for the fertile
baby machine, that the rest of the village like to gossip about.
Ultimately,
though, the film is also about loss; loss of community, loss of a way of life. Captain
Cat is old and dying and his demise is symbolic of the death of the village
Llareggub (Bugger All spelt backwards). There hangs over the film a purveying
sense of nostalgia for a time that never waa. Gritty realism is swept away with
a click of the camera, and for 85 minutes we can escape into a world of dreams
and fantasy. I enjoyed it immensely.
4 stars
