Missed the point!!-'spoiler'

True. Writers on film can often be horrifically wrong. Their weakest points though are on technical matters - about which not one in a thousand knows anything - and how the film business actually works - as opposed to parroting the "auteur" theory.

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it was the end where Durrance realized he was going to remain blind and decided to go off to Germany to avoid marrying Ethne. In actuality, he had just realized that Harry was still alive and knew the right thing to do would be to get out of the picture so Ethne and Harry could get together again. I can't believe a "movie critic" would mis-interpret or mis-remember this wonderful scene.

You're both saying the same thing!

Durrance realizes only at the end that the letter from Ethne he carried around with him contained his feather and that Harry had put it there. Therefore, he also knows that Ethne saw it when he asked her to read the postscript in the letter when he first came home. The fact that she said nothing about it, and continued to plan a life with him made it clear to Durrance that she was doing it out of a sense of duty...or worse, pity...but certainly not out of love. Ethne would NEVER admit that, so it was up to John to end it in a way that kept everyone's "honor", while acknowledging that he wanted Ethne and Harry to reconcile with his blessing.

So John makes up the story about going to Germany to regain his sight, and then re-joining the army, to avoid marrying Ethne as the critic said. The whole part about regaining his sight was to remove any sense of guilt either one of them may have felt about reuniting.

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