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The Trench [DVD] [1999]
 
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The Trench [DVD] [1999]

DVD ~ Paul Nicholls
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £19.99
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The Trench [DVD] [1999]
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Product details

  • Actors: Paul Nicholls, Daniel Craig, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Danny Dyer, James D'Arcy
  • Directors: William Boyd
  • Writers: William Boyd
  • Producers: Mairi Bett, Steve Clark-Hall, Xavier Marchand
  • Format: Anamorphic, PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Entertainment in Video
  • DVD Release Date: 1 May 2000
  • Run Time: 112 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004T8VK
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2,962 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in these categories:

    #48 in  DVD > Classics > War and Westerns
    #58 in  DVD > Action & Adventure > War

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Reviews

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Pro Logic English
Dolby Pro Logic
Featurette
Interviews
Behind The Scenes


Synopsis
THE TRENCH tells the story of a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the worst defeat in British military history. Against this ill-fated backdrop, the movie depicts the soldiers' experience as a mixture of boredom, fear, panic, and restlessness, confined to a trench on the front lines. At the center of the troops is 17-year-old Billy MacFarlane (Paul Nicholls), who alongside his older brother, Eddie (Tam Williams), has volunteered for service. Like their fellow squad members, they are boys dressed as men. Their survival is in the hands of war-hardened Saergeant Winter (Daniel Craig) and bookish Lieutenant Hart (Julian Rhind-Tutt). However, when word comes that the squad will join the first wave of the attack, they all face an equal fate.
Novelist and screenwriter William Boyd's directorial debut steers clear of epic pronouncements about the pointlessness of war. Instead, he illuminates in glowing detail the characters perched at the edge of the abyss. With a minimum of bloodshed, the movie seeks to capture a momentous event through a narrow lens. Watching the men march stiffly into battle, it becomes clear there is no such thing as "modern" warfare.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars THE TRENCH IS HEART-WRENCHING STUFF, 16 Dec 2002
By A Customer
Saw THE TRENCH recently, the first film by famed novelist William Boyd (Armadillo, A Blue Afternoon) and was very moved by it. An odd piece in its structure (very little happens until the last 10mn) as well as form (almost entirely studio-shot) the film's evocation of the absurdity of war was ultimately very successful.

Disposing of any plot, Boyd slowly traces the 48hrs leading up to the Battle of the Somme, with a group of (very) young soldiers. They are bored, restless and scared and as an audience we are asked to go through the same journey. And when the inevitable does happen we are left in tears because we got to know and like those characters. This film is Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN but the other way round (in the Hollywood big budget blockbuster you start off with the battle and the death and the carnage and then you are bored for the following 2hrs!). For emotional payback THE TRENCH is a much more satisfying experience.

Paul Nicholls' performance is probably too weak to carry the film but Daniel Craig's awesome display of charisma is in itself worth watching the film for.

Also I would like to point out to so-called WWI experts who have written reviews for this film that the days depicted in this film take place in June when trenches were not muddy and wet, not yet at least. I do agree though that explosions would have rendered the field itself more lunar than grassy and luxurious.

A definite recommendation. You will not regret it.

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26 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The quiet and clean first world war, 13 Feb 2001
This review is from: The Trench [VHS] [1999] (VHS Tape)
I looked forward to seeing this film immensely but was teribly disappointed by its lack of atmoshere. As someone obsessed with the First World War I am normally moved to tears simply by the sight of a poppy but this film somehow managed to leave me cold. Set during the days prior to the first day of the battle of the Somme, it refers to the immense bombardment of thousands of shells upon enemy lines referred to as just 400 yards away, yet the falling of these shells sounds as gentle as distant thunder as the troops whisper to one another. The trenches and uniforms are clean and dry, food is so plentiful the soldiers can afford to be picky, the soldiers do not scratch, 'chat' for lice, write home, or sing... Okay, perhaps this film is striving to avoid the cliches of WW1 and of course no-one expects such a film to embrace documentary accuracy, but for me these men portrayed were unrecognisable as products of their era. The acting hardly helped, with indistinguishable working class lads and upper-class stereotypes, with only the sergeant eliciting any sympathy. Overall the film reminded me of a one act stage play written for a sixth form project. Feeble, minimally researched and no fitting epitaph for the men who endured the stinking, filthy, bloody hell that was the Somme.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars A terrible waste, 8 Sep 2007
By Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Set in the run up to the disastrous first day of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, The Trench isn't entirely worthless, but it's not a movie, more a filmed play (despite being written as a movie), and a very poor one at that with that 1970s BBC For Schools television look. The decision to shoot on a soundstage is particularly disastrous, since it never looks like anything but a soundstage, and this despite having a good cinematographer (Tony Pierce-Roberts). The decision to never leave the trench until the final scene doesn't really work, partially because we have no indication of the world that awaits them, but largely because Boyd's finale is just too televisual to have any compensating shock value. The abrupt jump to exterior for the last couple of minutes (and very tame they are too) is very noticeable, the film stocks and looks just not matching at all. Borrowing the final image of Gallipoli as well doesn't help.

Characters constantly explain what they're doing to each other despite having been in the trench for several weeks or months; there's no immediacy, no sense of danger, no sense of having to live in a fetid, claustrophobic open grave. Indeed, it's one of the most comfortable British trenches I've seen, with an absolutely level floor for the most part place. The soft barrage - the quietest I've ever heard for shells landing 700 yards away - doesn't help. Boyd really doesn't have any idea of the possibilities that cinema has to offer, either camera or sound. It's real problem, though, is that ultimately it's a polite, clean and determinedly inoffensive film about a dirty, ugly war.

Pluses are some good performances, most notably Daniel Craig and Paul Nicholls, the latter improving after a bland start to establish a credible screen presence. There are a couple of good scenes, too, but it doesn't really have the ring of truth or authenticity - the mood seems more influenced by hindsight than the actual mood in the run-up to the first day. Not only do you never feel you're there alongside them, but there's no sense of people caught up in, and disposed by the mad rush of a cruel history beyond their control. There's no dread, no fear, just observation. The shortfall between the film Boyd thought he was making and the one he did is made frighteningly apparent by his interviews in the EPK included on the disc.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking Movie
Having read all the other reviews, I think that most of them are rather unkind to this movie.
Prior to the battle, the Somme area was a quiet backwater of the Great War with... Read more
Published 21 months ago by ray dorrity

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and emotionally powerful
Though some of the finer points in this film are innaccurate and the charachters are somewhat stereotyped, overall it portrays brilliantly the absurd and hopeless nature of the... Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars It was an ok; it did not go into detail about trench life.
this film was brillant in the storyline. but in the detail and real life facts it did not do so good. Read more
Published on 20 April 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars Rather bland
It is a watchable film, but certainly no masterpiece. The other reviewers are correct in denouncing the lack of detail and set design, but it must be remembered that it was a low... Read more
Published on 10 April 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars Disasterously miscast dvd
This travesty of a film about the 48 hours leading up to the first day of the battle of the Somme fails in all areas. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars intense, moving, must see
A wonderful film, full of strong characters, very well acted. Many intense scenes, packed with different emotions, often moved me to tears. Read more
Published on 26 Jul 2000 by eric_degerland@csi.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, moving, dramatic and BRITISH
How fantastic is it to see a war film where the Britsh are not forgotten. After watching Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan you begin to wander if the Americans actually... Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2000 by kateross1@hotmail.com

4.0 out of 5 stars Honest, moving and thought provoking.
After seeing some of the Great War productions on TV in recent years, complete with the usual cliches and myths, there was a little trepidation on sitting down to watch this film... Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars See it!
It's good that this type of film is still being made about a conflict that will very soon have no eye-witnesses remaining. Read more
Published on 3 April 2000

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