The Trench (Daniel Craig) 1999

It is a place 8ft wide, 600 miles long, man-made and God-forsaken.

Director: William Boyd
Writer: William Boyd

Daniel Craig, by contrast, dominates every scene he appears in, with an intense presence which overshadows anyone else in sight. The scene which will probably stick in my mind most from this movie is one where he is eating a jar of strawberry jam made by his wife, and tries to share some with young Billy, who repeatedly refuses because he doesn't like jam and doesn't want to get the seeds between his teeth. Craig stays very quiet, but the expression of bewilderment and loneliness in his eyes, as his efforts at kindness are politely rebuffed, says a lot.

For most of the film, the very young men are cooped up together in the trench, waiting for something to happen, and increasingly getting irritated with one another over minor things.There's a huge and pointless row over who stole a "naughty" postcard from a collection hoarded by one unpopular boy, who flies into an almost murderous rage over the affair. The atmosphere feels almost like my memories of boarding school, but of course with the difference that these boys won't be going home soon, or in many cases at all.

Adding to the mix of emotions is a strong element of class conflict, with the officers being shown as isolated and insistent on their status. Julian Rhind-Tutt is good as the despairing Second Lieutenant Ellis Harte, who seems to long for the friendship of his sergeant but to be held back by a feeling that, after all, he's not quite one of us. And Adrian Lukis, who was so good as Wickham in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, has a very small but chilling role as a Colonel who is keen to use the men as extras in a newsreel, but couldn't give a damn about any of them as individuals.

Danny Dyer, Julian Rhind-Tutt and James D'Arcy are all well-known names, while Daniel Craig, who plays Sgt Winter, and Cillian Murphy, seen here in a small but memorable role, have both become stars, and Ben Whishaw, cast as Keats in forthcoming movie Bright Star, is firmly on the road to stardom.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• The
• Trench
• Daniel
• Craig
• 1999
• homoerotic

[mjeshaw]

There was a fascinating documentary on TV which used lip readers to interpret what the soldiers caught on the newsreel cameras were actually saying. "The Trench" has a very authentic feel. being one of the most accurate WWI films. It attracted some critiicism for the fact that, in the battle scene, no-man's land is still green, rather than the wasteland of mud and craters which most people have in mind from the photographs of Passchendaele, but the film makers had done their research properly.

[cygannon]

Jullian Tutt is amazing...

[Bnesque]

Thank you for your great synopsis!

To have Ben and Cillian in the same frame, and both guys make their character so ordinary and banal is something I'm so grateful here,