boblam_

I saw this film again after a gap of many years. The story is well known ,the author lauded and the actors quite superb. What really captured and engrossed me was the 'time frame' of the film in it's setting of Fishguard. It is of another age,innocent and simple, lost in the vaults of time. Everything about it is of the heart. The schoolchildren,the honest rascal, sometimes no-good, characters and the relationships. Watching and listening to Burton is to enjoy the rich voice of a great artist. And, has Elizabeth Taylor ever looked so stunningly beautiful as in this film ? It also shows how rich we were in highly talented actors during this period. This account " in the day of ...." will increase in importance as the years roll on. It will surely stand the test of time.

After seeing Atmen ( Breathing )the night before, the viewing of LORE confirmed the high quality of German language films. LORE is a tad different from the usual films about this period. WWII stories mainly depict the Allies side of events. Refugees, prisoners of war,Hitler assassination attempts, Rommel,the resistance movement and so on. LORE gives us the less frequently mentioned, at least publicly, privations and dreadful experiences of the innocent victims of a defeated nation. The story line has been well told elsewhere. I will limit myself to saying how deeply moving this film is at many levels. It is fiction which creates it's own fact. The physical and psychological sufferings of so many innocent people on the losing side, so often ignored,is graphically portrayed in this account of the horrors in the aftermath of WWII.

Having seen this again i must say it gets better. I view it from the perspective of a soldier serving in Malaya, as it was at the time, in the mid-1950's the period in which the film is set. So much of the behaviour is very true to the real thing. In fact i almost see it as a commentary on army life at the time. The plot is almost credible , you would have to have been there. The 'atmosphere' of the period and place is captured in the b+w format. If anyone wants to know what army life was like in mid 1950's Malaya then this film will tell you more than any academic study. It certainly reflects the peculiar fun and horrors of National Service life. The plot thins towards the end but what precedes it makes viewing worth while.