Hedd Wyn

My mother and I sobbed all the way through the second half of this film. To be fair, it can only be properly appreciated if you speak Welsh; the poetry loses everything in translation. It does become pretty mawkish at times but as a true Welsh woman I'm a no-holds-barred sentimentalist and I fell for it hook line and sinker.

This Welsh-language film directed by Paul Turner is based on the true story of Ellis Evans - a young poet living in North Wales at the start of WW1. Huw Garmon is excellent as Evans - the young lover; the poet; the farm boy and, ultimately, as a young soldier sent to his death at the Somme. Evans competes in the National Eisteddfod - a cultural competition which includes the awarding of a Bardic chair to the winner of the poetry competition but, before the winner is announced Evans, whose bardic name was Hedd Wyn, is sent to the front. This film captures perfectly the Welsh traditions bound up with the Chapel and the family. It also shows vividly the young lives wasted in the conflict. The countryside of North Wales is shown in glorious colour,contrasting with the grey mud of the trenches. There is one scene where the Major is leading his troops down a country road. As they approach the camera the scene shifts to the side of the road and one sees the faces of these boys who are marching off to what we now know was almost certain death. The troops were played by young army cadets and it helps us to remember that few of those who died were old men - they were young boys - "they shall not grow old as we that are left grow old". The final scene where the Bardic chair is brought, swathed in black, to the Evans' farmhouse is so moving. The parents, grieving for their lost son, accept it with dignity knowing that he will never see his prize. A beautifully acted, directed and photographed film worthy of its Oscar nomination.

Wales is the part of the United Kingdom about which we don't hear much, and that's what makes Paul Turner's "Hedd Wyn" all the more enjoyable. I had never heard of the title poet until watching it. Ellis Evans proudly wrote in his native language and took as his pseudonym Hedd Wyn, the Welsh words for "blessed peace". But with the arrival of World War I, the English drafted him and sent him to his doom.

The movie is both an indictment of war and of England's domination of Wales. There can be no doubt that the English looked down on the Welsh just as they did the Scots and the Irish, and therefore had no qualms about sending them into harm's way. Evans was disgusted with the jingoism pushed by London, but even he got thrown into the war.

The movie's most impressive quality is of course its use of Welsh. For all that I know, it might be the only movie filmed mainly in Welsh, a language that has some of the most interesting spellings of all. It's just a really good movie. Rwy'n argymell y ffilm (Welsh for "I recommend the movie").

*That's Welsh for "this is impressive".

Generally good, a sad story about the waste of war , with excellent photography and pretty good acting, this film is neverftheless nothing like so good as you might suppose from the awards, praise and glowing reviews. Surely it must have benefited from the shortage of films made in the Welsh language?

Also, it is marred by the simplistic,nationalist approach of the film makers, who seemingly ignore the the fact that the powerlessness of the Welsh common soldiers conscripted into the ranks was mirrored by that of the English working class.

...Meanwhile, in the officer class, the average life span of a first lieutenant was six weeks, which was why Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon were unusual among 'The War Poets' in surviving the war...

The complete lack of gore in the battle scenes detracted from the horror presumbly aimed at by the film makers.

Also, surely the film makers invented or at least embroidered the drama of the love stories? They don't ring true for the North Wales of that era.

This story about the tragic life of the beloved Welsh poet Ellis Evans compares favourably with "All Quiet on the Western Front". One comes away from this film convinced of the hopelessness of war and yet, bolstered by the knowledge that for all our general savagery we humans can now and again produce poetry of sublime proportions.