U.K. 1975
DIRECTORS: KEVIN BROWNLOW, ANDREW MOLLOW
96 minutes. Black and White
Directed by
Kevin Brownlow

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kevin Brownlow

David Caute

novel Comrade Jacob: Andrew Mollo

Cast (in credits order)
Miles Halliwell....Gerrard Winstanley
Jerome Willis....General Lord Fairfax
Terry Higgins .... Tom Haydon
Phil Oliver .... Will Everard
David Bramley .... Parson Platt
Alison Halliwell .... Mrs. Platt
Dawson France .... Capt. Gladman
Bill Petch .... Henry Bickerstaffe
Barry Shaw .... Colonel Rich
Sid Rawle .... Ranter
George Hawkins .... Coulton
Stanley Reed ....Recorder
Philip Stearns .... Drake
Flora Skrine .... Mrs. Drake
April 1,1649. St. George’s Hill. Surrey, England. " A Reformation-era religious sect called the Diggers sets out to form a commune and till the soil on "common" land," which by law permits grazing - but not settlement and cultivation. Led by Gerard Winstanley, theirs is a nonviolent action to reclaim land for the poor who had been dispossessed by Oliver Cromwell’s recent Civil War. But the local villagers see the Diggers’ "occupation" as a threat to their livelihood and, led by the Presbyterian parson, John Platt, take action to harass and burn them out.
With Winstanley, Brownlow and Mollo set out to make an absolutely authentic historical film. They even used rare breeds of animals that dated back to the seventeenth century and borrowed armor for the battle scenes from the Tower or London. Basing their screenplay on Winstanley’s writings (the same pamphlets which Marx read in the British Museum while forming his ideas on communism), they created an almost perfect dramatic rendering of the events."