Regeneration

Regeneration is one of those films you know in advance is going to be painful to watch. Some of the images are quite strong, almost electric, and the photography is very good. Good performances combined with seriously good writing make this an important film to see.

Regeneration treats its audience with respect. The dramatic denouement and characters are not simply laid bare for a popcorn-audience to mindlessly digest. The film unfolds, the scenarios develop, the characters live and breath the ugly reality of warfare. And this all happens in a natural, credible manner beautifully shot and paced by the under-rated Gillies McKinnon.

The opening aerial shot of the bloody consequences of battle are every bit the emotional and visceral equal of Spielberg's lauded 20-minute opening sequence in Saving Private Ryan. The rest of the film - in my opinion - surpasses Ryan as a whole in terms of its drama, poetry, anguish and thought.

The performances are outstanding. Jonathan Pryce's portrayal of Rivers falling apart at the seams as he adopts the neuroses and trauma of his patients is astonishing. Johnny Lee Miller is also excellent as the (initially) mute soldier, haunted by the brutality of a trench-attack. James Wilby's Siegfried Sassoon is perhaps the toughest role to play in the film and yet he surpasses any prior (or subsequent) performances with a characterisation that swings from harsh to likeable, strong to weak, right to wrong.

All of the numerous storylines are well constructed and followed to their natural conclusion. There are no false avenues; no bum notes; no waste.

The source material is beautifully adapted for the film (by the rare breed of writer-producer, Allan Scott), losing none of its pace or characterisation. The emotional weight so prominent in Barker's novel are perfectly transferred into the movie. How wonderful for a modern film to have non-stereotypical, imperfect lead characters and lack easy conclusions. How beautifully evoked is the friendship between Sassoon and Owen. There is no sacharine sentiment in this movie; nor artificial shock to induce pity; nor a wasted scene or moment of dialogue. Equally, the period look of the film is stunning. Filmed in Scotland, the vistas are beautifully bleak and wintry. The atmosphere of the First World War is all too frighteningly real.

The music, whilst beautiful, is perfectly restrained. Harking back to the films of the seventies, long moments of silence pervade Regeneration. How did things go so badly wrong in the last twenty years in this respect?

Regeneration achieves the very rare distinction of matching (if not surpassing) the beautiful and moving novel on which it is based. Thoughtful film-goers should treat themselves to this wonderful and intelligent film.

Beginning with a fluid bird-eye-view shot tracking across the corpse-strewn muddy trenches of First World War Northern France, we are introduced to the character of the real-life war-poet Siegfried Sassoon (James Wilby), as he is shipped home and placed in Craiglockhart, a castle in Scotland being used as a military-run psychiatric hospital for soldiers suffering from war-neuroses. Sassoon's particular neurosis is little more than a conscious objection to the direction in which the war has turned in it's latter stages (1917), bringing him into conflict with the British military establishment (who had previously awarded him a Military Cross for bravery), and in particular psychiatrist Dr William Rivers (the ever reliable Jonathan Pryce), who is charged with the task of treating the various traumatised soldiers under his domain.

Taking a rather different approach from the 'war-is-hell' mass-entertainment spectacle of Spielberg's recent 'Saving Private Ryan' and Terence Malick's elliptical 'The Thin Red Line' (both made in 1998), 'Regeneration' evades easy solutions and focuses on the psychological horrors of war in a more low-key and balanced manner. The horrific battle scenes are largely eluded to in flashback, invoked during the well-meaning Pryce's therapy sessions, which utilise the entire arsenal of early Freudian psychotherapy, from dream-analysis to hypnotism as well as more quirky techniques such as putting shell-shocked officers in charge of troops of boy scouts in order to help them regain confidence in their leadership abilities. The central perplexity here is that the soldiers are being cured with the intention of sending them straight back to the front line.

With this and his following film, 'Hideous Kinky', Gillies MacKinnon is emerging as one of the most thought-provoking and technically accomplished British directors working at the moment, adopting an expressionistic cinematic style here which utilises the dark forbidding milieu of the hospital and the surrounding bleak, autumnal countryside to full claustrophobic effect. There are problems here, in the way that the script concentrates on a number of patients, including an angst-ridden Jonny Lee Miller (in his first post-Trainspotting role) who begins the film mute, without fully exploring the relationships between them, but it successfully establishes itself within a convincing historical context whilst challenging the proposition that Britain was united in its conviction to the First World War (of particular relevance today, given our involvement in the bombings of Kosovo and Iraq). Whilst not immediately accessible, it is a film that demands and rewards the closest of attention, and bodes well for future films from the director. Based on the 'Regeneration' trilogy of novels by Pat Barker.

Regeneration is an amazing film, it discusses the unseen wounds left on soldiers by war. The emotional trauma it causes them and how best we can help them, if we can at all.

James Wilby gives a remarkable performance as an officer who is sickened by the war that he sees around him. He isn't so much mentally ill as disgusted with war and his contribution in it. Jonny Lee Miller is also amazing in his portrayal of an officer driven mute. When he discovers his voice he is angry and argumentative, but slowly we discover that all of his anger is a shell to protect the hurt that has built up inside of him.

One of the biggest underlying themes in this film is how useless war is, even if it is for the right cause. Mainly because it destroys the human psyche and removes hope.

This is a startling film, and touching and emotional. It cuts to the core of who we all are, as human beings.

This was an excellent movie. Amazing photography and casting and an

intelligent scenario which passes messages about how horrific war is

to the audience in the mildest yet touching way I've seen.

The story involves a hospital in Scotland where officers are sent when

they suffer a breakdown, a common phenomenon in the first and second

world wars. In there, a doctor (played by Jonathan Pryce) attempts to

treat his patients in a more humane way than the one other doctors of

the time choose. Through the stories of characters in the hospital --

including Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, two poets who happen to

meet and become friends in the hospital -- the life of the British

soldiers in the first World War, as well as several political messages

about that affecting era for humanity are successfully transmitted to

the audience, without blood, without effects or huge battle scenes in

a way that touches and indicates its significance more than any other

film I've seen about the subject.

The performances are excellent, with Johny Lee Miller -- who apart

from this movie has not shown any signs of serious acting that I've

seen -- delivering a very good performance of a shocked and ambitious

officer and Jonathan Pryce metaphorically accepting the ideas of

Sassoon -- who opposes to the war after a point where he realises its

futility and the lack of values in the politicians driving it -- can

be though as the link between the soldiers and humanity itself.

It is definitely a movie I would recommend! Excellent.