WWI drama Journey’s End explores impact of war on soldiers

THIS World War I drama focuses on a small group of British soldiers holed up in the trenches during the final phases of the slaughter. We might have seen this story before — or variations on it — but Saul Dibb’s masterful retelling feels shockingly fresh.

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JOURNEY’S END

Director: Saul Dibb

Starring: Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany, Asa Butterfield

Rating: M

Running time: 107 minutes

Verdict: Well-timed, impeccably told WWI drama (Four stars)

WE might have seen this story before — or variations on it — but Saul Dibb’s masterful retelling feels shockingly fresh.

And that’s entirely appropriate given the timing of Journey’s End’s release — on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day.

Based on R.C. Sherriff’s classic 1928 stage play, which has already been adapted for the screen on four previous occasions, the World War I drama focuses on a small group of British soldiers holed up in the trenches at Aisne during the final phases of the slaughter (aka the Spring Offensive).

British soldiers in the trenches in the new WWI drama Journey's End.

Unlike his contemporaries, Dibb is less interested in recreating the visceral, flesh-tearing, bone-splintering, limb-severing experience of the battlefield, which he evokes economically,
than he is in exploring the moral, psychological and spiritual disintegration of the soldiers.

One might argue that this makes Journey’s End a somewhat old-fashioned film. If so, it marks a welcome return to such territory.

Set in an officers’ dugout in the days leading up to a major German military offensive, Dibb’s film adaptation offers a clear-eyed and extraordinarily potent account of the experiences of the soldiers as they wait, metres from the enemy lines, for the rumoured assault to begin.

Nuanced performances from a superb ensemble cast ensures even the supporting characters are three-dimensional.

Fluidity Films production with Asa Butterfield in Journey's End.

Perhaps still best known as The Hunger Games’ Finnick Odair, Sam Claflin (Their Finest) continues to expand his range with a fine, complex performance as the brooding, shell-shocked alcoholic Captain Stanhope, a man of equal parts honour and self-loathing.

Paul Bettany is achingly decent as Lieutenant Osborne, who has found grace under extraordinary pressure.

Toby Jones does a lot with very little as the cook. Tom Sturridge embodies the weasley face of the aristocracy as Second Lieutenant Hibbert. Stephen Graham offers a more working-class perspective as Second Lieutenant Trotter.

And Asa Butterfield is hugely empathetic as the young and idealistic Raleigh, who chooses the company because of his previous association with Stanhope (a man he barely recognises.)

The letter Raleigh pens to his sister, Stanhope’s fiancee, is employed with powerful restraint in an epilogue that conveys the huge distance between the romantic
myth of the honourable hero and real life.

Quietly devastating and deeply human.

* Now screening

Originally published as WWI drama Journey’s End explores impact of war on soldiers