The History Behind Mike Leigh's Movie 'Peterloo'

[I] looked in the direction whence the noise proceeded, and saw a party of cavalry in blue and white uniform, come trotting sword in hand, around the corner of a garden wall, and to the front of a row of new houses, where they reined up for a line.

...On the cavalry drawing up they were received with a shout, of good will, as I understood it. They shouted again, waving their sabres over their heads, and then, slackening rein, and striking spur into their steeds, they dashed forward, and began cutting the people.

Passages in the Life of a Radical by Samuel Bamford (1788-1872)

Mike Leigh’s movie Peterloo is officially on release in the U.S. this month, after quickly coming and going from theaters last year (an early release to qualify for European film awards, and then a re-release to coincide with this major anniversary year of the incident).

August 16, 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of a bloody massacre that ended a peaceful political rally in St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, ironically named Peterloo after the infamous Battle of Waterloo (1815). It’s a major event in the history of the city and in the country’s slow journey toward democracy.