Action Man: Battlefield Casualties short film released

A new short film based on artist Darren Cullen's Action Man: Battlefield Casualties artwork has been released online. 

The film, which features a voiceover by BAFTA-winning actor and musician Matt Berry, was produced by ex-services organisation Veterans For Peace UK to coincide with the annual Armed Forces Day on 27 June.

The 'Battlefield Casualties' images, depicting injured, damaged and mortally wounded action figures, initially appeared alongside Cullen’s 2013 comic Join The Army, which also featured a 1.5-metre reimagining of the Bayeux Tapestry. Describing the project to The Skinny in 2013, Cullen said: “I liked the idea of taking the bombast of (military) adverts but switching the bullshit with something more resembling the actual, horrific truth.

Cullen added: "I didn't want to make something that was just anti-war. That seems too easy. Obviously, war is the worst thing ever, according to everyone, surely, right? Some people who have never been anywhere near a war will disagree with that. But I thought it'd be more interesting to focus on recruitment, the carrots and sticks they use on innocent people to turn them into professional murderers."

The films mark the launch of Veterans for Peace's campaign against the enlistment of minors into the British Armed Forces. Speaking to the Guardian, VFP co-ordinator Ben Griffin, who served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan in the SAS and the Parachute Regiment, described his sense of obligation to teenagers to tell the truth about the horrors of war. 

“There’s no clear, uniformed enemy any more,” Griffin said. “Basically, in war, you’re fighting a civilian population: you’re breaking down doors in the middle of the night. That can be a terrible shock. But by then you’re locked in. The clock doesn’t even start ticking on your four years until you’re 18. It’s a sinister thing, pulling in people who are less critical and easier to mould.”

A former student at the Glasgow School of Art, Cullen's previous projects include Pocket Money Loans – a payday loan business exclusively for children – and he is also the co-writer of The Skinny's Mystic Mark horoscope column.

The Battlefield Casualties exhibition runs from 24 Jun to 2 Jul at the Red Gallery, Rivington St, London.