SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS has been showing this past month
at local cinemas. This family film stood out, amid the wash of screen stories
about fantastical beings, big and friendly creatures and lost fish, as a story about
a group of real children, doing real and almost possible things on sailing
boats in nicely natural and wet Cumbrian weather.
The film was criticised
because the character of young Titty was renamed Tatty (a sensible alteration
to me) but also because it was definitely an adaptation of the original novel:
the new plot has added peril and danger and is not just about children sailing
in the English Lake District in 1935.
I heard a complaint that Captain
Jack, whom the Walker
children perceive as a “pirate”, has now become a spy pursued by two Russian agents. However, I felt this
addition subtly referenced the life of author Arthur
Ransome, who was involved with the Bolsheviks and married Trotsky’s
secretary, see here. In the film, the
“Russian spy” idea is introduced by some “Richard Hannay” style escapades on
the train and leads eventually to a thrilling scene involving the two sailing
boats, obviously created to meet the needs of modern viewers used to the
excitement of modern cinema. Swallows and
Amazons does have the flavour of a cosy BBC children’s period drama about
it, but there are two very pointed moments.
One moment
occurs just after the enemy ship Amazon
has out-sailed Swallow. Susan, the
older Walker sister, whose role has been mostly “looking after the little ones”
sees the then-unknown crew tug off their woollen caps to reveal tumbles of long
hair. “They’re girls!” she cries with delight and admiration, an outburst clearly
directed at her bossy older brother. Her glance works so well on film!
The
second moment occurs when the children’s Scottish mother, gazing across at
the island where her children are camping, tells the farmers wife how glad she
is that her family have been able to return to this place and enjoy the
freedoms she enjoyed as a girl in the Highlands, her lines accurately reflecting modern concerns
about children rarely experiencing the natural, outside world, and all the
stronger and sadder for being said in the past. If there was a wish behind the
film, I felt it was getting children outdoors and back to the real, real world
we all live in.
The
film, which – contrary-wise, I know - seems to me ideal for Christmas
television, is worth watching despite not being a pure adaptation, The
adventure may even lead young readers into Ransome’s books, and even into
trying out sailing themselves.
However,
I had another reason for being curious about the film.
Large
sections of the interior of Wild Cat
Island were filmed at Plumpton Rocks, a local Yorkshire
beauty spot. Surrounded by fields and woodland, the outcrop of weathered rocks is
full of clefts and curves and passageways which agile children, as the film shows,
love to run through, clamber over and hide themselves between.
The
Plumpton Lands were mentioned in the Domesday Book, and passed from father to
son until, in the eighteenth century, they were bought by the influential Daniel
Lascelles (1714- 1784) of Goldsborough Hall
who used the natural outcrop to create a pleasure garden. The
architect John Carr of York
designed and built a dam (which has been newly restored) and expanded the old fishing pool into what is now a large lake, surrounded by
trees and woodland.
The
gigantic rocks, reflecting picturesquely in the lake below, became the subject
of the first two known oil paintings by J.M.W. Turner. They were painted in
1798, a time when Turner was actively touring England, seeking sponsors, and
already known for his water-colours. Commissioned by Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl
of Harewood, the work now hangs in Harewood House. The rocks themselves, known
as both Plompton or Plumpton Rocks, have retained their name
and were bought back by the Plompton family in the twentieth century.
All of
which leads me to a last connection, made while writing this post. In Swallows and Amazons, the actor Rafe Spall plays rough, rogueish Captain
Jack, while not long ago, his father, Timothy
Spall made a memorable Turner in
the film of that same name.
Between
visiting the Rocks last week and seeing Swallows and Amazons this week, I did
feel slightly as if I was following winding adventurous paths myself.
Penny
Dolan.
Additional Information.
Plumpton Rocks reopened this
August after closing for two years for dam and dredging improvements, felling
of overgrown trees and, presumably,filming. Now, in September 2016, the Rocks
are only open at weekends so if you want to go, do check the opening hours. The
grounds are steep, the stones and steps can be slippery, and there are no
facilities. The Rocks aren’t the most grand and glorious of Yorkshire
beauty spots, but they still make a short and quite impressive afternoon
outing, out there in the fresh air, especially with junior scamperers. Strong
legs needed. For even stronger legs, look out for Brimham Rocks.
