The Trench
1999
THE TRENCH tells the story of a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the worst defeat in British military history. Against this ill-fated backdrop, the movie depicts the soldiers' experience as a mixture of boredom, fear, panic, and restlessness, confined to a trench on .. Read more
| Starring | Paul Nicholls, Daniel Craig, Danny Dyer, Julian Rhind-Tutt |
|---|---|
| Director | William Boyd |
| Genres | Drama |
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The Trench
THE TRENCH tells the story of a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the worst defeat in British military history. Against this ill-fated backdrop, the movie depicts the soldiers' experience as a mixture of boredom, fear, panic, and restlessness, confined to a trench on the front lines. At the center of the troops is 17-year-old Billy MacFarlane (Paul Nicholls), who alongside his older brother, Eddie (Tam Williams), has volunteered for service. Like their fellow squad members, they are boys dressed as men. Their survival is in the hands of war-hardened Saergeant Winter (Daniel Craig) and bookish Lieutenant Hart (Julian Rhind-Tutt). However, when word comes that the squad will join the first wave of the attack, they all face an equal fate.
Novelist and screenwriter William Boyd's directorial debut steers clear of epic pronouncements about the pointlessness of war. Instead, he illuminates in glowing detail the characters perched at the edge of the abyss. With a minimum of bloodshed, the movie seeks to capture a momentous event through a narrow lens. Watching the men march stiffly into battle, it becomes clear there is no such thing as "modern" warfare.
| Starring | Paul Nicholls, Daniel Craig, Danny Dyer, Julian Rhind-Tutt, James D'Arcy, Tam Williams |
|---|---|
| Director | William Boyd |
| Studio | ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 52 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 01 May 2000 Production year: 1999 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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William Boyd's directorial debut is a sincere but stagey attempt to explore the psychological pressures weighing on diverse tommies awaiting their first day on the Somme. Although the camera restlessly suggests the cramped, primitive conditions, Tony Pierce-Roberts's glassy photography too often highlights the atmospheric shortcomings of the sets. Similarly, the actors rally to the colours, but their commitment can't disguise the fact that the script is populated solely by stock combat characters: the naive private, chirpy cockney, gritty sergeant and spineless officer. There are too many examples — Journey's End, RC Sheriff's classic 1930 study of human frailty set amid the futility of the Great War, for one — that portray a similar situation so much better.
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The Somme valley, 1916: while a major offensive is being planned against the Germans, a reduced British force holds the... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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12 out of 12 people found this review helpful
Dreadfully unconvincing
Full of farcical inaccuracies, cringe-worthy dialogue and all the character cliches in the book (honest private Tommy, brutal Sarge with a soft heart, posh Officer who's really a bit of a coward), 'The Trench' would barely have been passable as a children's television dramatisation.
According to this film, in the days before the battle of the Somme, there were miles of unmanned front-line trench for soldiers to run up and down, unimpeded - each side fired 3 or 4 shells each, and when the troops did go over the top, they advanced over a well-kept lawn. News to me. -
Most recent members' review
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9 out of 10 people found this review helpful
Oh Dear
I have to say what waste of talent in all aspects. The production budget on this film must have cost £100.00. Bad sets, boring story,ZZzzzzzz
I take some interest in WW1, and I know that before the Battle of the Somme started, there was a huge bombardment of German trenches, over a million shells fired. Yet all is fairly quiet in the trench.
It does not make you experience the horror and fear in the trenches.
The casts uniforms were spotless, faces clean. The officers all stereotypes.
In all, a poor reflection of life in the trenches. A film only for true Somme spotters. -
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