The Trench

I went considerably out of my way to be the only woman in the theater to see "The Trench" from Britain, a conventional continuation of the British obsession with World War I as being the most symbolic war. Not much new here that wasn't in "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "Paths of Glory" or "Gallipoli", but I suppose some lessons need illustrating for new generations.

Taking place claustrophobically in the trenches just prior to the bloody Battle of the Somme with the sounds of war all around--though it could also have been taking place in the canals of Mars against aliens-- the characters are typically class-based Brits (from ineffectual aristocratic officer to working class blokes whose conversations need subtitles for American viewers), but manage to stay above stereotypes through excellent acting (with actors familiar to us from PBS's "Mystery" and "Masterpiece Theater") and personalization.

I'm probably the only one other than Daniel Craig's family (and the webmasters at his fan site) who went to see the movie for him, but his career soldier sergeant in particular is a real human being.

Otherwise, as always with ensemble war movies, I have trouble telling the young guys in uniform apart to keep the characters straight.(originally written 12/2/2000)

Shot 99.9% INSIDE the trench to convey the sense of claustrophobia. It works. You can almost smell the trench. I personally think that the low budget style produced a happy bi-product rather than it being planned. Not a conventional war movie but a VERY British close up at the inter-personal relationships during WW1 before the Battle of The Somme. The youthful Paul Nicholls eminates a young 'duty to your country soldier' and in the alone-ness he fantasises over the memory of a young girl who merely served him with a stamp at his local post office. Loads of blood and guts and a particularly harrowing scene - almost subliminal - which works well as it ensures your brain remembers the real horrors of war at close quarters inside a trench. The usual chain of command reveals why delegation can sometimes disguise cowardice and fear. The film achieves its objective and portrays the awful waste of life.

Strangely this film has grown on me and I'm not sure why but still have a hate for it. The acting is fairly sound and it has some good moments but there isn't much feel for realism. For a start the trenches would have been infested with rats and lice and from what I've read about The Somme it seemed a lot more draumatic than what was portrayed in this film. It just looked too clean. The main hardship they had experienced was boredom, not relentless rain and the constant madness of bombardments. Also what was the point of capturing a German and then not interrogate him, but give him a fag and then let him go? Another wrong point is that the battalions would have been from the same region. Yeh, I'm being picky but why the scots were with southerners and northerners I don't know. The end of the film is the worst. Surely if there had been nights of endless shelling you'd expect to see some shell holes when going over the top? Could of had a nice picnic on that land. Shame, if the director had read more relevant books it could have been really good.

"The trench" is a missed opportunity.Life in the trenches in WW1,as depicted by the many letters the soldiers sent to their families,was really a living Hell,so it was possible to make a fantasy and horror movie from this subject.That's what Abel Gance did with his masterpiece "J'accuse" (1918 and 1938) when he showed the victims rise from the dead.

"The trench" succeeds in recreating a gloomy nightmarish blue-green atmosphere ,but is short on screenplay.The story is never really interesting and there is worse: the director is incapable of creating characters we could care for,which is a shame,when it deals with martyrs of WW1 .

This movie is an unusual type of war movie. 99% of the movie is shot inside of this 8 foot wide, 600 mile long trench, filled with British soldiers just only becoming men. It has a sense of claustistiphobia, and itensity among young men that are practically scared to death about the world around them, and every little thing counts. This movie was very intense, and you couldn't take your eyes off it for a moment. 8.8 out of 10.