A brilliant disconnect

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2003)

This is another film that I earegly awaited to view in a cinema, and not on TV, and the reactions to certain scenes are not what you'd think. The scene where the soldiers lie on their bunks and talk about how they'd prefer to be killed was met with laughter; this is because of the absurdity of it all, men calmly comparing the better way to die. You almost have to nervously laugh.
And then there is the cinematography - I think the famous POV shot of Colonel Dax in the trenches during the artillery barrage is perhaps my favorite filmed sequence of all time - not only because of the amazing visual, but also the cacophany of the shells exploding. As the men then actually rise up from the trenches, they go nowhere through no fault of their own. A commander, so full of ambition that he's disconnected from the suffering of his men lashes out not at the enemy for the slaughter, but his own troops. What on earth is this war about?
A brilliant and important film. If you have the chance to see it in the theatre, don't miss it.