Hedd Wyn

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.

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.

As someone who lives only some 10 miles away, and known the story so well, it was such a pleasure to watch the film.

It showed how pointless war is. I think that what Ellis did, go and join up, so to save his younger brother from doing so, is so brave. Such acts you wouldn't expect to see today in society.

I have seen this film many times and it's just as good each time around. It will make any person cry at the end.

One interesting thing, in the film Huw Garmon (Ellis Evans) courts Sue Rodderick (Lizzie Robers), but in a soap shown here in Wales, Sue plays Huw's his mother!!!

The Welsh have been valiantly preserving and promoting their beleaguered language and culture. In recent years, the Welsh film industry blossomed, with such inventive slices-of-life as LEAVING LENIN (1993), which was filmed in St. Petersburg, shown at international film festivals and garnered considerable interest and accolades. It showed to the world that the Welsh language is very much alive.

HEDD WYN is another example, as it depicts the life and death of one of Wales' greatest poets. Ellis Evans (Huw Garmon), under the pen name ÒHedd WynÓ writes thoughtful, spare verse which wins kudos from his countrymen. The son of a farmer, he isn't as educated as some bards, but his kind and genuine nature fuels his talent.

The film evinces his pastoral existence in his native village, his richly nuanced relationships with three different women, his reluctant transformation into a soldier, and his eventual sacrifice in World War I. More a biopic than an exploration of poetic inspiration, the film nonetheless has its lyrical moments, and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.