Black, white and grey

I found this a decent passionate film about a tragic subject. The acting was great and the plot gripping.
However I do wonder if it's time for WW1 films to start leaving behind the orthodoxy and the clichés.

Idiotic pompous aristocrats TICK
Venal middle class TICK
Decent salt-of-the-earth working-class victims TICK
The war (and indeed all war) as a pointless waste TICK
Military discipline = injustice TICK
etc.

I am no supporter of war. I marched against Iraq and Afghanistan, and stand by that opposition. It's just that things aren't always black or white. Germany was a military dictatorship that invaded a smaller neighbour. There may be a few similarities with WW2.

I honestly don't know enough about that period to call the war justified or unjustified, but I think there's room for debate and dissent on this matter.
If only for the idea that those poor sods weren't ground to bits on the battlefield for no reason atall.

We're not in the 1960s anymore and I think a mainstream audience would be ready for a more complex view.