The Dig

[peter]

Directed by Simon Stone, this melancholy and moving semi-historical film is currently showing on Netflix and relates the events surrounding the famous Anglo Saxon excavation of Sutton Hoo which took place in the county of Suffolk at the outbreak of the second world war.

Starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan as (respectively) the reserved but deep thinking excavator and the wealthy estate owner around which the story turns, the film is soft in it's depiction, but never slow or lacking in emotional heft about the tale it is telling. At the outset the relationship between the two is formal, and to a degree it remains so, but each develops a fierce protective attitude toward the other as the significance of the discovery begins to leak out to the established academic community (previously dismissive of Mulligan's desire to initiate the dig) and the wider world at large. As vested interests move in on the project and more academically (read socially superior to the earthy Fiennes character) recognised archaeologists begin to exert their influence, the pair see their work and commitment slipping out of their control and begin their push back against this.

Complicated by the heiress's illness with a serious heart complaint and the excavator's thoughtful and caring wife, who while in the background still exerts an influence on this good man, the relationship between the two principal characters becomes difficult and how this is resolved becomes one of the film's main triumphs. There is a romantic subplot between two of the younger dig members which, while interesting enough in itself, does not really add to the main story, but neither does it detract from it.

Balancing its different elements of the story with consummate skill, the director has created if not perhaps a small masterpiece, then at least a fine couple of hours viewing which shows that not all romantic stories have to follow the set pattern we have come to expect - that different outcomes can be equally satisfying and that people can behave well as well as badly. Not perhaps as historically accurate as it might have been, the film however gives a terrific showcasing of one of the national treasures that may be seen in pride of place in the British Museum to this very day.

[wayfriend]

It was ok. The story seemed to lack direction, theme, or focus. Acting was good.

Go watch Fortitude. Them we'll talk.

[peter]

Are you talking about the TV series set up in the Arctic Wayfriend?

[wayfriend]

Are you talking about the TV series set up in the Arctic Wayfriend?

Affirmative. Has at least one cast member in common with The Dig.

[peter]

Seems we have it on Sky Atlantic here - I'll check it out.