The Tower

An intricate portrait in oil, this absorbing documentary tells the story of the construction of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's immense refinery on Kent's Isle of Grain. Low angle shots and suspenseful music over key sequences inject doses of heroism and romance into what is essentially a pragmatic engineering story. The plant and the film were four years in the making, and the refinery opened in 1953, transforming local life and landscapes - it remained open until 1982.

In 1954 Anglo-Iranian was renamed British Petroleum, better known as BP. It was in this early postwar period that the oil giant began getting seriously interested in film, eventually becoming one of the most prestigious and adventurous industrial film sponsors. In this early case, the documentary company DATA won a contract to shoot 'coverage' of the Isle of Grain construction, resulting in two very different films, both written by John Ingram and directed by Peter Pickering. The first, The Island (1952) was a poetic study of an incoming industry's effect on a rural community and environment. The second, The Tower, is a more straightforward account of planning and building the refinery itself. For an interesting comparison see The First Four Years (1951), also available on BFI Player another DATA film, for the Welsh steel industry.