Cromwell

Details

Release year: 1970

Storyline

Puritan statesman Oliver Cromwell leads England in a civil war against the absolutist and Catholic-sympathetic King Charles I.

Top credits

Awards

1 win & 1 nomination

Did you know

• When writer / director Ken Hughes said to Richard Harris that no self-respecting Irishman should ever play Oliver Cromwell, Harris laughed.

• Due to "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, scenes showing Cromwell's campaign in Ireland were cut.

• Most of the film was shot in England, and London's Parliament Square was constructed at Shepperton Studios, but the battle scenes were shot in Spain. The original cut went for three hours 15 minutes but Hughes cut it down to two hours twenty four minutes. "I think it's the best thing I've ever done," said Hughes in 1970. More than 200 workers at Shepperton Studios built the largest outdoor set ever constructed for an English-made movie, a two-acre re-creation of London's Parliament Square as it looked in 1642, complete with the House of Commons, Westminster Palace and Abbey, and roughly 50 other buildings.

User reviews

Technical specs

Sound mix

70 mm 6-Track, Mono

Aspect ratio

2.20 : 1, 2.35 : 1

Color

Color

FAQ

• How historically accurate is this film?
• Why does the film refer to the English Civil War when it encompasses the rest of the British Isles?
• Why was this film so controversial in Ireland?