The Last of England (1987)

just watch it!

Brilliant and touching

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I once attended University film classes and one of the courses was in European cinema . Our tutor Rolland was a flamboyant , larger than life character , very erudite and knowledgeable in his field but his tastes weren't exactly mainstream and one night the class was doing experimental European cinema " Now we're going to be seeing some Derek Jarman " " Aw no " I cried " " Ah Theo you must hate me ? " " Well thatdepends on what we're watching . It's not the last of England is it ? "" yes it is "" Aw no " I shrieked by which time the atmosphere in the class became one of intrigue as the other students became curious as to why a film could bring out such emotions from someone " but it's totally gay " Rolland replied in camp mock anger " Of course it's gay . Jarman was gay , he died from AIDS didn't you know that " " That's no excuse to wave penises at the screen " Laughs from the other students " Ah Theo now I understand - you have a small penis problem " cue laughter from the other students that seemed to last a lifetime I'd certainly recommend a Rolland film class . They're always interesting and informative with interaction class discussion and much laughter . The downside is you have to watch a Jarman film now and again Derek Jarman in invariably described as " a challenging film maker " which is pseudo-speak for pretentious art house garbage . TLOE is Jarman at his most challenging indeed and anyone attracted to narrative cinema need not to watch this The story at its most basic features a post apocalypse landscape and images that almost defy description . A youth has sex with a painting , a woman played by Tilda Swinton tears off her wedding dress , a man forages for food in a dustbin , with the images cutting to para military soldiers patrolling the devastated streets . Add to this abstract voice overs , sequences filmed in black and white 8 mm . time lapse photography and homosexual frotting and you've got a film that will only appeal to the most pretentious art-house cinema junkie . The only reason for watching it is that you can claim you've seen one of the most ostentatious films ever made and remind yourself that rubbish like this used to appear on Channel 4 every Thursday in the late 1980s and that British cinema was taking quantum leaps in quality ten years later

I lasted through about 12 minutes---I came back to IMDb---I read the reviews.Do you have to major in Critical Thinking, Women's Studies, or some other new lefty claptrap to write reviews for IMDb---or maybe just to watch such astoundingly useless incoherent trash as this.Margaret Thatcher was very popular with MANY people in Great Britain. She was elected over and over. She rescued Great Britain from a nightmare of lefty Labour socialist dreams---just as Degaulle rescued France a decade or so previous.The dreams of the left have lead, over and over and over to , at best, stagnation, hopelessness, and despair; and at worst to the murder of millions of people (read The Black Book of Communism, or Harvest of Sorrow).Calling something art does not make it art.

This is the sort of movie which is usually defended with a phrase such as 'Oh you clearly didn't understand' or 'It's narrative is too unorthodox'. The sad fact is the film's limited distribution is due to its own wretched pretensions rather than its intelligence. A barrage of depressing images (man shoots up, man humps portrait of woman and so on) and an endless meandering dialogue is not enough to make a film involving. Jarman's intention is clear, Thatcher's Britain was every bit as horrible as it is shown to be here but surely there were better ways to articulate that. His work remains infuriating rather than involving and for that reason alone this film must be judged a failure.

I saw this film several months ago and was the last Derek Jarman film I saw, having loved his others...This simply blew my mind. I loved everything about it.