Review of Trench, The

Introduction

Ever on the quest for some light relief, I thought to myself that a First World War Trench movie was just what I needed. I was a bit wrong. The mainstream press, judging from the one-liners on the dust jacket, rated this movie very highly indeed, and, in general, I can see why.
The first thing you notice about the movie is that the British people are played by British actors - quite a novelty by recent standards and an enormous boost to the authentic feeling of the film. The plot follows the central character Billy, played by ex-eastenders Paul Nicholls, who is a 17 year-old volunteer finding himself in the trenches facing the German ranks across the Somme. The production is excellent - the trench has been painstakingly re-created and the atmosphere of excitement, apprehension and outright fear is captured from the very first scene.
The main problem for me from early on was Paul Nicholls himself - I know he`s got his fans but I`ve always found him so wooden that he`s in danger of being varnished every time he stands still for more than 5 minutes. In fact for most of the film I found him indistinguishable from part of the construction of the trench.

Video

You should watch this film. Particularly people with illusions that war is glamorous should watch this film - it certainly opened my eyes to, more than anything, the very randomness of the killing. Ninety-nine percent of the film is based inside the trench, just 400 yards from the German ranks, which are being constantly but inaccurately shelled by the British troops in the rear. There is some gore, certainly there`s a missing face or two and the odd half a bloke flapping about and in other circumstaces I`m sure the BBFC would have slapped an 18 rating on it. What justifies the 15 rating is the well-directed reaction of the others to the deaths and woundings - in short they`re absolutely petrified by them - vomiting, traumatised, blind panic petrified, just like you and I would be.
The oppressive feeling that would come from confining several hundred young men into a ditch 8 feet deep by 8 feet wide in an environment of constant danger and complete absence of information is conveyed extremely well. The two real character parts for me arrived in the form of the company`s officer (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and his sergeant (Daniel Craig), the former obviously very unsure and as scared as his men, sustained only by large quantities of whisky, the latter battle-experienced and all too aware of what`s going to happen when they eventually go "over the top".
I don`t want to trot out a long list of cliches, but I really don`t know how they could bring themselves to do it - they really were heroes in the truest sense and I`m just thankful I was born in the year that I was.
Only the last 5 minutes of the film are concerned with what Rowan Atkinson described in "Blackadder goes forth" as the plan "Where we all stand up and walk slowy towards the enemy" - and that`s exactly what they did, picking their way through barbed wire and mines whilst troops fell all around to German machine gun fire.
There is some balance in the capture of a young German conscript, who, after some initial pushing and slapping, turns out to be just very scared young man a long way from home, the same as everyone else. In the film, some of the British realise this, some don`t and others will not allow themselves to realise it, this too is a well-crafted scene.

Audio

Dolby pro-logic.
Lots of "Whhhhhoooooshh - BANG! - Arrrggh" type stuff.
There`s some, but importantly not too much, mood music at some of the more climactic scenes which blends in nicely. Audio effects on, for example, a snipers bullet whipping into the trench had me wincing - it`s very effective.

Features

Cast interviews, behind the scenes (of a trench?)
You know I never watch these bits...

I guess they may have a few minutes of Paul Nicholls getting a coating of Cuprinol, or someone making a shed out of him.
Here he is looking confused. Or is it sad? or happy? could be any of them.

Conclusion

60,000 British troops died in the first two hours of the assault on the Somme. It`s worth a couple of hours to find out a bit about how they may have felt..