Very disappointing...

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I sought this out based on Edgar Wright's list of 10 lesser known recommended movies. I found it on the BFI double-disc set (vol 4) of public information films (called Stop! Look! Listen!), along with some other eerie curios about the danger of strangers, water, fire, speeding etc (the one about strangers is almost as disturbing as Apaches). Apaches is fascinating. Throughout, its clear that John Mackenzie (The Long Good Friday) is really dedicated to the project, the writing and direction are beyond what you'd expect. There's some great photography and moments, and how the kids riff on American TV tropes is fun. Things I noticed: Although insanely dark (innocent kids getting accidentally killed on a farm), I also can't help but find it quite funny at times. Its like the worst kind of black humour. - Listening to the kids shouting/talking led to me wanting to see the next kill, which made me feel pretty shameful, like some twisted version of the 'Final Destination' formula. - The narration of the boy over key scenes is really effective. - There are lots of disturbing juxtapositions: the kids using American cop TV lingo in their games whilst being kids on a farm, the kids play against the parents laying a table for a wake, the innocence of play against the brutal potential deathtraps on a farm. However amusing it might feel at times, by the end credits you'll feel disturbed.

"Apaches" is a British television movie that is not really a documentary film, but more of an educational work. It runs for 27 minutes and the writer and director basically enjoyed long careers in the industry, so this one here is probably not one of their most or least known works I would say. The cast is predominantly children as this movie is supposed to teach children how to behave on a farm in order to avoid all kinds of danger. St times, the film feels so absurd that I really cannot take it seriously as an educational film, but see it rather as a fictitious comedy, even if I believe that is probably not what it was intended as. Anyway, I had to think of the Gabelstaplerfahrer movie right away, not because that one is also a short film, but because there also gruesomely violent things happen and it is also somewhat funny to watch. Anyway, back to this one here. I would say the cinematic level and writing here is not on a level where I would recommend. Have to give this one a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.

Apaches is a film displaying a group of young children who live in the U.K. and enjoy playing 'Apaches' on their neighbor's farm. The farmer never seems to mind. Rather than an adult, this film is narrated from a child's point of view (he thinks funerals are parties for grown-ups, etc.). Each of the children begin to die in agonizing ways, such as a boy drowning in a manure heap and a little girl drinking rat poison and waking up screaming and crying at night as she dies. While teaching children safety is important, this was a pretty macabre and morbid way to go about it. And despite the number of farm accidents per year at that time, it's hard to believe that every child in the group could die on the farm. Today, there are a lot less farms, most are now factory farms and those are in warehouses, fenced off from the public. I don't think showing this to kids today would be necessary, it's a rather outdated film, only kept around for nostalgia.

This is a short film from 1977 produced by the government's health and safety executive warning children about the dangers of playing on farms to be shown in schools . Strangely despite living on an Island dependent on farming for the local economy it's a film that was never broadcast at my school . If it was shown my peers and myself would have certainly remembered seeing it The story involves a group of six children who innocently play at being Indians on a farm . Innocent days indeed where the spirit of young adventure involved children playing at soldiers or cowboys and Indians and appropriately the scenario here resembles Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS as the group of six Apaches get whittled away to zero What strikes you about watching this is how graphic some of the scenes are , It's not on the level of video nasty or torture porn but at the same time it'd be impossible for the late John Mackenzie to get away with some of the scenes nowadays such as a small pool of blood being shown after a child falls under the wheels of a moving tractor or most chilling of all a young girl screaming out in agony after being poisoned . The film ends with a poignant list of names of children killed the previous year in farm accidents One thing that perhaps doesn't work entirely successfully is an aspect of logic . The farmer seen is very friendly and doesn't mind young scamps playing on his farm and it's seems strange that none of the children learn there lesson that after their friends die on the farm they don't come to the conclusion that it's perhaps a bad idea playing on farms so become too obvious plot devices , but that's the whole point that if you don't learn from other people experiences you may very well end up dead