REVOLUTION REMEMBERED: When star names including Al Pacino came to Lynn town centre

The glamour and excitement of a full-scale film production came to Lynn town centre when the cameras started to roll for Revolution.For five months in 1985 it was the hot topic in West Norfolk, especially in the early days when the film’s star names, Al Pacino and Nastassja Kinsky set up home here.“Thousands savour a taste of Hollywood” was the Lynn News headline after the first full weekend of filming at the end of March, with reporters Cathy Watson and Carolyn English noting: “The greatest show in West Norfolk was at Lynn over the weekend – and it was free [as] crowds of people flocked to the area around King Street and the South Quay.”

And as these photographs from the Lynn News archives show it was a colourful experience for the town as film company Goldcrest Productions turned the clock back to the American War of Independence between 1776-81 for its million-pound-plus screen epic Revolution – especially when the red-coated British army marched through the streets.Even before the cameras rolled local folk were out in force to see the town’s King Street, Purfleet and Custom House area transformed into a mini-Hollywood. The face of Lynn’s waterfront was quickly transformed to look like New York in the late 18th century.Staff at Lynn’s historic Custom House were the lucky ones as they had a bird’s eye view of the film set from their upper windows.

Loosely following the course of the American revolutionary war, the early filming in Lynn showed the victorious British army after the capture of New York in 1776, while later scenes shot in May showed the celebrations as a thousand extras portrayed New Yorkers dancing and cheering after the “enemy” had been defeated. While much of the filming was in Lynn, the film crews also used the Stanford battle area near Thetford, as well as Ely and Melton Constable Hall for some scenes. Devon’s wide open spaces were the location the main battle scenes and a wooden fort was built on one cliff top.By the time Pacino came to Lynn for Revolution filming he had received five Oscar nominations and was famous for his roles in The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. His co-star, Nastassja Kinski, was just a teenager in her first film in 1975 but was soon taking lead roles winning a Golden Globe award as the title character in Roman Polanski’s film Tess. Revolution also featured such names as Donald Sutherland, Joan Plowright, Steven Berkoff and even Annie Lennox from the chart-topping duo Eurythmics which had hits such as “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”. And it was being financed by the British company Goldcrest Films, which had enjoyed success with highly successful films such as Chariots of Fire, Gandhi and The Killing Fields before backing Revolution.

What could possibly go wrong?Well, even before the sets had been dismantled in Lynn in early July there were stories circulating that Goldcrest had overstepped its budget by more than £3 million – and when the film was released it became a box office disaster, reportedly losing more than £9.6million.It was slammed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic for the performances and script. A reviewer for Time Out called it “an almost inconceivable disaster” while a Rotten Tomatoes writer called Revolution “a star-spangled bummer”.

It was later reported, however, that the Director’s Cut, released in 2012 and featuring a new voice-over by Pacino was felt by many to finally do the story justice.But for the many hundreds of West Norfolk people who, for those few months in 1985 had a close-up view of a major film production, or appeared fleetingly on screen, Revolution would live long in the memory.

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