One of the greatest war films ever made

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2000)

This has to be one of the most moving and harrowing war films I've ever seen. Along with Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, this is one of the finest depictions of life in the trenches during World War I. When I first sat down to watch this film, all I noticed was its age. That fact that you could hardly hear what they were saying, that you could see them shaking the sound stage when they were showing the bunker scene. However, as the movie pressed on, it started to grab hold of me. Each scene divided from the next by fade outs and fade ins. The film builds on itself. Each succeeding scene more intense than the last, building to that memorable finale. This is a movie that makes one hate war in a deep and passionate way. I highly recommend this film as an example of what art can be capable of.