Watched the film again last night

The feeling of awe is still there. This is a multi layered film that speaks and resonates on many different themes. The horror and futility of a war and its impact on ordinary men and women far from the front line. The story of a love that overcomes all obstacles and brings the two back together. French society in that time. Differences in people and how they react to the carnage around them and how they can bring what they are to the battlefields and show their true colors, it is a comment on human nature at its best and worst.
One thing that struck me and was most telling is how the same event can be seen in different ways by different people. It is a bit like having a dozen people in an otherwise empty room, one falls down and you get eleven different versions of what happened.
Admirable film on all levels.

"Saruman had the White Hand displayed everywhere, you could say he was symbol minded"