Prometheus (1998 film)
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| Prometheus | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Poster of the film | |
| Written by | Tony Harrison |
| Screenplay by | Tony Harrison |
Release date |
|
Running time | 130 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Languages | English and Ancient Greek |
| Budget | 1.5 million pounds.[1] |
Prometheus is a 1998 film-poem created by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison, starring Micheal Feast in the role of Hermes. The film-poem examines the political and social issues connected to the fall of the working class in England, amidst the more general phenomenon of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, using the myth of Prometheus as a metaphor for the struggles of the working class and the devastation brought on by political conflict and unfettered industrialisation. It was broadcast on Channel 4 and was also shown at the Locarno Film Festival. It was used by Harrison to highlight the plight of the workers both in Europe and in Britain. His film-poem begins at a post-industrialist wasteland in Yorkshire brought upon by the politics of confrontation between the miners and the government of Margaret Thatcher.[1][2][3][4][5][6] It has been described as "the most important artistic reaction to the fall of the British working class" at the end of the twentieth century.
Harrison has acknowledged that he was influenced by Percy Shelley's work Prometheus Unbound. Harrison actually started the planning of his film at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome so that he could be in the same city as Shelley when he was writing his drama.[2]
Plot
Walter Sparrow plays the role of an elderly, emphysema-laden Yorkshire miner who is about to retire. In a bleak, post-industrialist landscape, the old miner meets a boy who is reciting a poem about Prometheus. The youth is played by Jonathan Waintridge. The miner eventually ends up in a depleted local cinema and, though sick with emphysema, he defiantly lights-up a cigarette. With the old miner at the theatre, the run-down projection equipment suddenly comes to life and projections appear on the old screen.[1][2][4][5]
The person directing these projections is Hermes, the messenger of Zeus. Both Hermes and Zeus represent capitalism in the film. Hermes is played by Michael Feast. Hermes, with a British upper-class accent which contrasts with the coalminer's warm, smoky, northern working-class accent,[1] starts lecturing the coalminer about the failings of humankind. Hermes is presented as cruel and obnoxious, in one instance acting as the tallyman in a mine which has been designated to close, lowering the miners in the pit while attacking them in verse:[7]
This is the terminus ad quem
For bolshy bastards such as them
As they give Hermes their tally, the miners quietly mumble expletives at him. In the pit scene Hermes also quotes verses 944-946 in ancient Greek from Prometheus Bound.[7] Eventually, the old man starts seeing a huge golden statue of Prometheus, nicknamed Goldenballs in the film.[5] It is revealed that the statue was made by melting the bodies of Yorkshire miners.[1][2][4][5] The film traces the trip the statue takes in the back of a truck through Eastern Europe,[4] revisiting the horrors of World War II European History in places such as Auschwitz, Dresden and the Polish industrial city of Nowa Huta. As they pass from these places, Hermes tries to have the locals denounce Prometheus for their condition and all the ills he has brought them with his gift, rather than Zeus. Sometimes he succeeds, but not in Nowa Huta where the locals refuse to denounce Prometheus much to the chagrin of Hermes, who then lashes out at them through rhyming verses.[2]
I should have known those stubborn Poles
still had Prometheus in their souls.
It angers Zeus. It riles. It galls
Such grovelling to Goldenballs.
In the end, the old coal miner, who represents the spirit of Prometheus in the film,[2] arrives in Greece where he speaks about the powerful impact of fire on humankind.[1][2][4][5]