The Battle of Orgreave

I thought that this documentary “The Battle of Orgreave” was very intense and informative. Mike Figgis and Jeremy Deller confronted something that seemed to largely be ignored in English history. The reenactment was used to analyze the past and the emotions surrounding the important event.

The documentary gave very good historical background. I was able to understand the reason for the protests and the battle and it was easy to follow. I also think that the reenactment almost rewrote or at least reanalyzed the event in history, and it gave the miners an opportunity to readdress The Battle of Orgreave. BBC had clearly misrepresented the battle showing that the miners threw stones before the police charged. In actuality, the police charged first and then the miners threw stones. The reenactment gave the miners a chance to say what they could not originally say to the media. As the reading by Robert Blackson states, a reenactment is a mode of interpretation and interaction with a past.” People were able to readdress the sensitive issues that were not talked about.

Overall, the reenactment was very intense. The faces of the men were angry and mean. I was amazed at how real the emotions still were. After twenty years, the miners were still angry. People were even afraid that the reenactment could get out of hand because the emotions were still so intense. The fact that the camera was so close to the battle and so close to the faces of the men made the scene that much more intense. I had to remind myself that it was just a reenactment because the intensity in the faces of each man seemed so real.

The Orgreave reenactment had many similarities to the reenactments by Mark Tribe. Tribe hired actors to reenact famous speeches such as Paul Potter’s 1965 anti-war speech. Spectators were not only “witnessing art, but by the end they also seemed not to be simply playing along but to be genuinely engaged.” “His intention was precisely to create such a strange cultural and political straddle.” The speeches address both past political issues but also address current political tensions. The reenactment is similar to the Orgreave reenactment because they are both artworks and political statements. The reenactment of Orgreave addresses current and past tensions.