Underwhelming film that wasted a good premise

Ok, it was a film about British soldiers in a WWI trench ahead of a major attack. So was "Gallipoli" and that film did a masterful job of creating the sense of what "going over the top" meant.

Certainly the argument can be that these men were unprepared for what to expect because they were told the artillery would clear the way. One character understood what singing Germans meant and his reaction when in-line made the point. But what did this film say that hasn't been said before in films about a squad of young men in war?

I kept waiting for this film to add something that couldn't be found in "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Gallipoli", and even such something as cliche as "Sergeant York" and "The Fighting 69th."


I haven't seen "My Boy Jack." I hope that is better.