Journey's End (2017)
Tagline: “Innocence
lost... Courage found.”
Premise: World War One
drama set in the trenches in Aisne, France, in March 1918. A group of
officers struggle to deal with the stresses on them and their men ahead of an imminent German attack.
Delivery: “It's bound
to hurt a bit.”
As it is Remembrance
Weekend, marking 100 years since the end of the First World War, I
wanted to cover Journey's End, the recent British film, set in the trenches of World War One. Despite being now out of living memory, the war is nonetheless
one which still “hurts a bit”, as the above quote from the film
understates. So many people were affected by it and many today can
list, with a sad pride, their relatives who died fighting. Myself
included. Unlike fighting the Nazis, where there is perceived to be a
good versus evil narrative, the sheer futility of the industrial
scale slaughter of Europe's young retains a powerful emotional grip.
The reason there are
no famous action films about WW1 is simple; its echo is one still of horror
and pointless loss. Not one of glorious sacrifice and ultimate triumph, like its godforsaken spawn WW2.
Journey's End is an excellent microcosm of a war which as the film
states, claimed 700,000 lives on all sides in just three months
after it is set*. The film portrays the war in a way which doesn't rely on
brutality and a grandiose scale, boiling down the main issues into the
events in one trench rather brilliantly- testament to the quality of
R. C. Sherriff's play from which it is derived.
I was worried that the 12A
certificate would make Journey's End a sanitised or child like film, like
War Horse, but in fact it is very grown up, just not explicit in a blood and guts way. The
detail is in the dialogue, conveying the awful stench of death
without needing to show it- talk of the French using bodies of fallen
men to reinforce the sides of the trench rather than bury them.
That's enough in itself. Despite its strength lying in the words of
the play, Director Saul Dibb (Suite Francaise) and team bring a
nuanced realism to the visuals, rather brilliantly building the world
outside of the dugout.
The budget doesn't
appear to be lacking, partially because the film focuses on the
intricacies of the situations in the trenches and officer's mess, but
what there is is used well. Journey's End is driven, though, by the
quality of the performances, as you'd expect with brilliant British
talents such as Paul Bettany, Sam Claflin, Asa Butterfield, Toby
Jones, Stephen Graham and Robert Glenister. There
was a film called The Trench, made in 1999 with Daniel Craig and Paul
Nichols, which I had hoped back then, would capture WW1. It did not. Journey's End delivered
what I'd hoped for in that. It is a realistic, eloquent, damning portrait
of the futile war.
Bedsit it? Ultimately
a very powerful, fitting tribute to both the bravery of the men, who
experienced sheer hell, and the supreme wastefulness of WW1. Journey's
End's 12A status allows, earns even, a larger audience. Any ten, eleven or twelve
year old watching this would get a real insight into the horrors of
the war, without being so traumatised that they'd need therapy. I'd
have really engaged with it at that age. For whatever that's worth. 8/10
*Total military and civilian dead and wounded is estimated at 40 million.
Journey's End is out now on DVD and Blu Ray
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