A really impressive film that unfortunately had a very limited(if any?)theatrical run in the UK.Fine acting,interesting story,good intelligent script,no childish Brit-bashing,good action scenes.Goes beneath the horror of the trenches into a battlefield that the average filmgoer or those with a casual interest in military knowledge might be unaware of.One of the best WW1 films out there and a fitting tribute.
shareI'm sure Britain could make a good war movie if it tried. I just don't think there's any enthusiasm to make them any more amongst the modern generation. Beating the drum of Britain's military past has become very unfashionable nowadays. Patriotism is practically a dirty word. How else do you account for a university student urinating upon a war memorial?
And let's face it; we made more than enough war fims during the last century. Some pretty good one's too.
It gets a bit annoying when contemporary war pigs like Dannat try to appropriate the example of the two citizen armies of 1915-1918 and 1939-1963 in seeing off Johnny Foreigner then coming home and building the Welfare State. Britain doesn't have an army now, just a gang of mercenaries to be pimped to American Caesar and the memory of a time when things were better.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
'Beating the drum of Britain's military past has become very unfashionable nowadays. Patriotism is practically a dirty word.'
War films don't have to be patriotic. Indeed, the best ones generally aren't.
Juat watched 'Beneath Hill 60'; not bad. The Ozwank of Gallipoli was absent, the cliches and melodramatics were muted and far apart. Quite dignified really. No familiar faces from Underbelly though. [Ahem! Apart from Carl Williams that is (I saw the second series first and only got the original the other day.).]
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
The Ozwank of Gallipoli was absent,
The Aussie film industry has certainly become a force to be reckoned with.
I seem to recollect that 2 of those Messines mines never went off and the original maps got lost. So even now someone could be in for a big surprise.
Apparently one went off in the 1950s during a thunderstorm. Greatest bang since the big one.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
Plumer, of course, threw all his papers out after the war and declined to write about it, comment or even reminisce in public. However, when asked if he'd like to revisit the battlefield in November 1924 said he wouldn't feel safe any closer to it than Croydon.
shareIf Plumer were to visit Croydon on Saturday nights nowadays he might change his mind!
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Atonement
Who am I kiddin' who am I foolin' when they be like "What's up Fatlip?" and I say "Coolin'."
"Atonement" isn`t a war film-it`s a "luvvey-duvvey" which uses the war as a backdrop.
Blimey,I`d heard the rumour about the unexploded mine -certainly a nasty legacy for future generations like the ammunition ship off the Kent coast near Sheerness.
Just an aside, here. Did anyone see that `Time-Team' special about the British giant subterranean flame-thrower on the Somme? I've never encountered a word about that anywhere. The thing was so big, a tunnel had to be dug into no-mans' land, and the whole gizmo assembled underground. The team actually found it still buried on the front. They also recreated it using authentic bits and set it off. The result was absolutely mesmerising: a 250yd long firestorm. It's about the first time I felt sorry for the Germans.
sharehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweRug7iuFQ
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.