Movie Review: Journey’s End
One-liner: While authentic, claustrophobic, haunting and stellar, this psychological war drama adaptation is disconnected and distant.
Journey’s End is a war drama, based on the 1928 play by R.C. Sherriff. The claustrophobia, waiting game and pensive drama of trench warfare lends itself to the minimalism of the stage. Marked by the grit of dugouts, devastation of ravaged battlefields and ladders reaching over the top for the next big push, there’s a fairly static feel to trench-based dramatisations of World War I. This is probably what inspired 1917’s simulated single shot war adventure over no man’s land. While Sheriff’s stage play arrived just 10 years after the events of World War I, making it more hard-hitting for the people who were still feeling the reverberations of The Great War, the haunting sentiment remains.
Unfortunately one of the best situational dramas about this form of warfare is also one of the funniest. This puts fans of Rowan Atkinson’s Blackadder Goes Forth at a disadvantage, knowing that comedy can often be found in the most tragic circumstances. Set in a dugout, under the command of one Captain Blackadder, the British sitcom deals with many of the issues that inspired Sherriff’s play… enough to see it as a possible spoof. While solemn to dead serious, it’s almost impossible not to recall some of the classic comedy’s most memorable moments between Capt. Blackadder, George and Baldrick.
Journey’s End is on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to humour, much closer to humourless in its authentic depiction from the perspective of the British forces. Directed by Saul Dibb, the psychological war drama is set in Aisne in 1918 and journeys with a group of
British officers, led by young Captain Stanhope whose mental disintegration finds them scattered and in despair as they await final orders.
An intense drama, one of Journey’s End‘s undeniable strengths is its stellar cast, which features: Paul Bettany, Sam Claflin and Asa Butterfield. Unsung heroes, their dependable presence anchors the drama with solid performances, able to detach themselves enough from their egos to pull together as a team. Claflin was powerful as a villain in The Nightingale and delivers Stanhope’s unstable state of mind with vigour.
An immersive, thorough and intense portrayal of trench warfare, Dibb isn’t afraid to reflect the classic “war is hell” story. Struggling with detestable conditions, coming to terms with shellshock, confronting the prospect of death and making one’s country proud, Journey’s End comes to focus on the destabilising influence of Stanhope in the most claustrophobic and trying of times. His co-stars are the stabilisers with Bettany shedding his Marvel skin for a more grounded performance as Lieutenant Osborne and young Butterfield flexing his range beyond the confines of an up-and-coming child star as Second Lieutenant Raleigh.
“Sir… if we should happen to tread on a mine, what do we do?”
As noble as Journey’s End’s ambitions in translating the murky atmosphere and dreary muck of World War I, it’s a bit dull, stodgy and restrained by its stage origins. Dibb aims for realism, making full use of the language of the age and claustrophobic pressures of living underground in such confined spaces. The wardrobe and production design echoes this aim for period precision, able to give more focus to the detail by zooming into dugout life and death. As effective as he is in tapping into this nightmarish and dire situation, the film’s possibly too faithful to Sherriff’s play, making it seem dated and rather distant.
A window into a forgotten time, there’s much to be gleaned from this influential time capsule, yet one does wonder what prompted the filmmaker to resurrect this story. Almost ninety years after the play had its first run, the impact value just isn’t the same and while still relevant in terms of human suffering, the real battle is connecting with the troop of characters. Not attaching itself specifically to any one character, this ensemble war drama preoccupies itself with creating a vicarious cinematic experience tied into being there.
Somewhat adrift, just coping or wide-eyed, this disconnect becomes more pronounced as the weighting of Journey’s End shifts to experience over identification. Journey’s End is an admirable effort, compelled by intense drama, solid performances from an underdog cast and attention to detail. Aiming for a gutsy, gritty and true trench war experience from the perspective of British forces, the disconnectedness is apparent, and artistic even, but ultimately underserved in translating authentic fly-on-the-wall docudrama into emotionally engaging entertainment. While impressive from a visual standpoint, the poor connection and growing distance with the characters results in an atmospheric and haunting, yet rather alienating trial by fire.
The bottom line: Disconnected
