I vividly remember the day Richard Weston first came up with the idea for his film "The Young" – there we all were, drinking coffee and eating lunch, when Richard ran in and declared to our group that he had a new idea for a film. Despite the fact that he'd only come up with the idea fifteen minutes ago, he rattled out the plot of his new idea, and the various ideas he had for it. Within minutes, half the room was asking to be involved. If there was one thing we were sure Richard was good at, it was inspiring people in his ideas.
Thankfully, this proved not to be in vane. Around a year and a half after that day, Richard Weston's "The Young" was screened in its completion, and was extremely well-received. The plot revolves around Cael, a criminal wanderer-come-guardian of four youths in a post-nuclear war area of North-West England, who is forced by the remnants of the military to hunt down and kill his previous charges in exchange for his past atrocities.
The film was largely shot in a monochromatic, high-contrast colour set – what this did fairly immediately was take the beautiful landscapes Weston had selected for his sets and transform them into bleak, devastated pictures which reflected the sombre and desperate mood of the film's plot. Shots were close-up on the faces of actors – everything was kept sufficiently intense. What one has to remember about this film is that this is not a film whereby a group of friends or noble warriors come together in a valiant effort to put their complimentary skills together to banish evil; the people working together in this journey are simply all that is left. They don't like each other, they don't trust each other, and their personalities frequently grate on one another – they are suspicious of each other (a lot of the time, with good reason to be), they have vendettas against each other, but most importantly, none of them want to be there – even in films where the characters claim that "they have no choice", the majority of the time they do but they simple consider one idea strong than the other, so they "have no choice" to follow the stronger idea – this is different. The only reason they're with each other is that there's simply no-one else that could be with them.
The next thing which must be praised is the acting of all involved – it would be impossible for an audience to understand a character without the actors doing so, and judging by the discussions the audience members were having long after they had left the viewing room, every single nuance and scrap of subtext had blazed through – which was certainly how I felt. Richard Weston himself took the role of Cael, which would be a hard enough job by itself, let alone directing and filming as well. The character barely spoke, yet Weston was able to push through a thousand conflicting emotions and ideas in superb clarity through the stoic trench-coat-ed protagonist. Another gem came in the form of Darren Pritchard as Byrant, a seething cynical sergeant with a penchant of using intimidation and violence to keep his subordinates in line, maintaining an intimidating glower and excellent emotional deliverance when it came to his own personal denouement – especially in the presence of the downtrodden female private, Green. Green herself was brought into the forefront of many moments by her portrayer (Natalie Quatermass), who brought her to colour as a sensitive, wrenching voice of reason and mercy in the unforgiving settings, yet was done so in a way which made the viewer rally behind her efforts to bring morality back to the plot, rather than constantly consider her as someone who needed perpetual babysitting (an attitude Bryant and his superior, Captain Sanders, shared). The cast was – for something put together outside a highly-funded studio – enormous, but extremely dedicated all round and extremely well-cast; props once again to Weston.
The film itself was around three hours – lengthy for a film, and ambitious on the part of Weston, but he was by no means punching above his weight. Usually, if a film of this genre and complexity is three hours, some audience members leave looking tired, or spend the film checking their watch (we've all been there), or leave attempting to praise the film but ultimately defining it as "one of those films where nothing happens for three hours, but still really good" in a pretentious half-hearted stab at 'getting' whatever it was the egotistical maniac behind the camera/typewriter wanted us to 'get'. This however, I am heartened to say, was an exception. It was three hours, yes, but it was three filled hours, with events and relationships constantly evolving in a way which kept the audience engaged. Fears before the start of such a film are that 'three hours' will mean 'two hours of plot, one hour of pans and establishing shots', but Weston succeeds brilliantly in almost disposing of establishing shots – his writing and the actors' instant, immersive talents meant that the split second the scene changed, we knew where we were; we knew what was happening; we knew how everyone in shot felt – and it certainly didn't go unnoticed. There are many professional directors and writers today who still frustrate their audience with reams of establishment and exposition, and for Weston to have cracked so early on is promising and inspiring. In short, very few will be disappointed from watching this film, and only the unreasonable or the irrational would contest the idea that this is a great achievement that all involved can be immensely proud of.
Elliot Kinnear
