Editor’s note: For those unfamiliar with the play, this review contains one major spoiler.
Being the second film adaptation of an R.C. Sherriff play set in the trenches during the First World War, Saul Dibb’s take on Journey’s End does well to flesh out a relatively contained character study. In the play, the setting is focused on a group of five British officers who are moved to the front lines of the trenches just before the end of a stalemate between Allied and German forces. The action takes place over the course of three days close to the end of the war and is set entirely in the officer’s dugout, the warfare above ground largely taking place in the ellipses between acts and scenes.
In contrast, the film neither starts nor ends where the play does, taking scenes that were alluded to by characters to give a glimpse into settings such as a rest stop in a small French village and the home front. This perhaps makes the tension in the film less palpable to that in the play – the claustrophobic space of the officer’s quarters combined with the inescapable fate of being on the front lines before a major attack embodies the reality of early 20th century warfare well. Whilst removing the story from this location does well to expand the world of the film outside of the trenches, it also takes attention away from the ticking time-bomb nature of the play. Although the film is arguably lacking in well-crafted, continuous suspense, it nonetheless makes up for this with strong performances across the board and outstanding colour grading that is muted but never dull.
The cast is filled with a multitude of veteran British actors including Paul Bettany (Osborne), Tom Sturridge (Hibbert), Stephen Graham (Trotter), and Toby Jones (Mason), as well as the younger Sam Claflin (Stanhope) and Asa Butterfield (Raleigh), all of whom make up the five officers of the infantry company, plus a private chef (Jones). Particular stand outs in the cast were Claflin and Butterfield as the tortured commanding officer Stanhope and his young school friend-turned-officer Raleigh respectively. It is their relationship that drives the film: the opening includes Raleigh asking his uncle (another officer) to be assigned specifically to Stanhope’s unit, and it is Raleigh’s death in his arms that takes a final toll on Stanhope in the ending.
Though only 20, Asa Butterfield is no stranger to acting tragic roles in war films. He first made a name for himself ten years ago as the young Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and uses this experience in Journey’s End to portray the transformation of a child’s pure innocence to a teenager’s naivety and the lack of understanding war. Similarly, Sam Claflin was a near-perfect casting for Stanhope, a man plagued by the trauma of war akin to his character Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games franchise. In the play, the character of Stanhope is a personification of the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (long before they were recognised as such in the decades following the war and the play’s premiere in 1928). The frequent nightmares, equal dependency on the father figure of Lieutenant Osborne and whiskey, and oscillation between paranoia, rage, and catatonia are all portrayed with a subtle, yet strong empathy by Claflin, who like the audience has a retrospective and compassionate understanding of the First World War.
Being someone who, through coincidence mainly, can count the number of war films I’ve seen on one hand, my main interest in seeing this film was rooted in having studied WW! literature (including this play) at A-Level. Knowing the text already definitely enhanced my viewing experience, but for those who don’t know the story yet, it still stands as a brilliantly visualised adaptation of a play that took influence from the author’s own experience of one of the bloodiest and most tragic wars in recent history.
Many thanks to the Gulbenkian for the opportunity to see and review this film!
by Christina Valentine
edited by Jules A Maines
Big Lens Film 