From its brutally minimalist staccato soundtrack, its consistently excellent cinematography and numerous memorable scenes, this movie is an impressive attempt to envisage the hellish existence of the average soldier on the Western Front.
My only regret is I didn't watch this at the cinema.
For the participants and victims, no war can be said to be better or worse than another, yet there is something about the combination of devastating machinery and almost medieval hand-to-hand combat; the mind-boggling numbers of people involved in the war of attrition; the constant inhuman degradation, suffering and industrialised slaughter of WW1, that makes it stand out.
This was the war that should have ended all wars.
Daily life in the trenches must have been awful enough: exposure to extreme temperatures, lack of sleep, hunger, disease, boredom, loneliness and despair, literally stuck in mud for days, months, even years. Add to that the constant threat of poisonous gas, artillery bombardment, snipers, drowning in the collapse of trenches or the dreaded command to 'go over the top' and face almost certain death, injury or loss.
Imagine living day-to-day in this hellscape - often side by side with the rotting corpses of your friends.
To many of us, living in relative comfort, these experiences are unimaginable.
Watch it for the visceral experience. Contemplate it whenever you catch yourself feeling sorry for yourself.
My only regret is I didn't watch this at the cinema.
For the participants and victims, no war can be said to be better or worse than another, yet there is something about the combination of devastating machinery and almost medieval hand-to-hand combat; the mind-boggling numbers of people involved in the war of attrition; the constant inhuman degradation, suffering and industrialised slaughter of WW1, that makes it stand out.
This was the war that should have ended all wars.
Daily life in the trenches must have been awful enough: exposure to extreme temperatures, lack of sleep, hunger, disease, boredom, loneliness and despair, literally stuck in mud for days, months, even years. Add to that the constant threat of poisonous gas, artillery bombardment, snipers, drowning in the collapse of trenches or the dreaded command to 'go over the top' and face almost certain death, injury or loss.
Imagine living day-to-day in this hellscape - often side by side with the rotting corpses of your friends.
To many of us, living in relative comfort, these experiences are unimaginable.
Watch it for the visceral experience. Contemplate it whenever you catch yourself feeling sorry for yourself.