The Trench (1999)

The focus of "The Trench" obviously is on the human aspects of the British men who have gone to war in World War I. It does a good job of portraying the British soldiers with their emotions, thoughts and trepidations about their circumstances in the trenches of northern France. But it also seems to distort some of the human trappings and demeanors of the time. When movies impose modern mores and culture on the past, they distort that time and its culture and history. Thus, people who don't study such things or have knowledge of the times wind up with an inaccurate notion of history or of the reality of that time. Two things seem obvious as cultural distortions in this film. The first is the casual, almost disrespectful attitude and unruliness of the soldiers. This isn't something that happens just once or twice, but frequently. While all military throughout history likely has had some humor and playful banter among troops at times, it seems to be more of the rule among this platoon of Brits. The second is in the language. Again, all military throughout history likely has had some use of foul or rough language. But here, it seems that this 1916 platoon of British soldiers has adopted early 21st century British street talk (is it really that vulgar among society in England today?). And, I doubt that the British may always have had more vulgar mouths than we Yanks. But, by the standard of this film, the Brits make the service times of my family, from WW II through Vietnam, seem like baby talk. There may be any number of other distortions as well. Anthony Strachan, who plays Horace Beckwith, is very good in his role. But I doubt that a man so much over weight would have been conscripted or allowed to join the British Army then, or any time. I knew some men a little over weight at my boot camp, but they were whipped into shape by the end, usually with much less weight to carry around. The men in this film seemed almost constantly to be smoking cigarettes. Cigarette smoking grew immensely during WW I, but it wasn't yet to the point shown in this film among British soldiers. In a long documentary film of WWI that came with the DVD of this movie, I didn't see a single scene of men smoking cigarettes on the French, British and German lines. But, several scenes showed Allied soldiers in the trenches smoking pipes. The last couple of gross inaccuracies are in the setting. The movie folks did a credible job building the set of trenches – except for one thing. Where is the water and mud? The Allied trenches of WWI were notorious for their foul water and mud, yet we don't see any of that here. And, the scene of the battlefield that the Brits have to charge onto is a lush green meadow. That was almost laughable. Both sides had been bombarding that area for days on end. The land was a desolate wasteland. The distorted portrayal of the conditions and culture are significant enough to cost this film two stars, so I can rate it no higher than six stars. I base that mostly on the fine performances of the cast – all the actors. The setting of this film was in the days leading up to the first day of the British attack in the Battle of the Somme (July 1 to November 18, 1916). That first day – when this film ends – cost more than 60,000 British soldiers wounded or killed. It's considered the bloodiest slaughter in the history of the British Army. I mentioned a bonus documentary that came on the DVD with this film. "World War I: On the Western Front" is an excellent lengthy documentary of WWI. It is a CBS News documentary that shows only actual battle film of the French, British and German forces. It is narrated by actor Robert Ryan. That documentary is centered around the Battle of Verdun which cost more than 500,000 lives. It shows scenes all along the Western Front. Men are standing in deep water in the trenches. Men and machines try to move over drenched and muddy roads and fields. And, battlefields between the lines are a no-man's wasteland. Not a blade of grass, flower or tree can be seen. None of that was staged by Hollywood, but Hollywood (in the U.S. and abroad) would do well to study such actual war films to better and more accurately portray scenes in war movies.

'The Trench' is basically a World War 1 drama with a host of 'soon-to-be-famous' faces, including Daniel Craig, Cillian Murphy and Danny Dyer (the latter of which produces arguably one of the best performances of his career). It does its best to portray life on of the most depressing and violent conflicts in the history of man. But does it do it well? It's hit and miss. First of all, with a cast list as above, you can't really fault the acting. Everyone does their best with what's provided. However, where it falls down is the story. There isn't really one. But then that's hardly the film's fault, more a by-product of the subject matter. You can't really tell the story of the entire First World War in an hour and a half, so the film concentrates on just the build up to the first few days of the battle of the Somme.The characters just wander around, waiting for the final call from the military's top brass to send them over the top in an attempt to gain ground from the Germans. You get to know some of the soldiers and naturally care for their fates, it's just the whole film is really just about showing the conditions they had to live in, rather than telling a story which wasn't really there to begin with.I grew up on Blackadder (Goes Forth) and felt, despite its 'comedy' tag, it was somehow more touching than The Trench managed. Plus both the TV show 'Blackadder' and the film The Trench seemed to have similar budgets when it came to sets. I know it's a minor gripe, but everything in The Trench was 'filmed from above' so to speak. That way you never saw the sky (with the exception of about two shots). I know this might have been designed to heighten the 'claustrophobic' nature the soldiers had to live in, but it just felt cheap to me – like everything was simply filmed on a 'trench set.' Plus the soldiers' uniforms looked way too clean to be rolling around in mud for months on end! If you're looking for a film that shows the conditions of what the soldiers had to live in then this is it. If you want something with drama and poignancy then try Blackadder Goes Forth (plus it has humour, too). 'The Trench' isn't a bad film. It's just that it's hard to make a story out of just showing soldiers in the trenches.

I purchased a copy of this long, boring slow film after talking to a member of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA basketball team (who will remain nameless) on an airplane trip from Denver back to Memphis. He said it was a great film and one that he enjoyed. I thought to myself that someone of his stature has all the time in the world to watch all kinds of movies (during the basketball off season)... I was surprised to hear him speak to me about his passion for war movies and how much he recommended this one.....he must've watched a different movie than I did. this movie started out like it was going to be very good, but then no real story developed. It did have some good aspects such as the dirty and gritty movie set, the realistic lingo and the grueling sounds, and it is very historically accurate... they did that stuff well in this movie. ...the problem with this movie is that it just doesn't develop a story, and it turns into 2 hours of nothing. ...I kept waiting for something to happen ..and it never did.I had to purchase a copy of it because none of the video rental places had a copy to rent... don't buy this movie

I really don't need a war movie to be full of explosions to like it, but there was nothing about this movie worth liking. I really couldn't find a story to follow. The characters weren't developed enough for me to feel sympathetic for when they get picked off at the end. The production value of this film was like watching a play on PBS. If the producers and director wanted to give us a feel of what hell they went through in the trench having every other scene with the actors eating isn't going to help. I mean how about making it a true hell hole? I know this is supposed to take place in Summer, but mud, rain, and seeing the actor's breath to show cold, would have really helped. The No Man's Land was so Pristine that I thought the Tele-Tubbies were going to come rolling around. They could have thrown in barbed-wire, mortar shell holes, and the like.Don't even bother borrowing them from the library. This thing is really disappointing.