The simple psychology of trench warfare The Battle of the Somme became one of the significant battles of the First World War, it is not for nothing that this episode attracted the close attention of cinema, this despite the fact that the theme of the Great War is quite rare in the genre of the film industry. Don’t expect this movie to have massive battles and battle scenes. I will disappoint those who hoped for it – they are not here. Director and screenwriter William Boyd set himself a somewhat different task - to show the morale of the soldiers on the eve of a significant battle, the real situation in which the British army was on the eve of July 1, 1916. Therefore, the whole film is filled with dialogue: talk about the future, fatigue from unnecessary war, accidental terrible losses - like death from a stray artillery shell that exploded right in a deep trench or a sniper bullet during a night patrol.
I was disappointed because I expected something different from the movie. Sometimes dialogues are completely empty, so if you squander them, you will not lose anything. The blindness of the high command, which does not see the real state of affairs at the front behind the staff maps, is well shown - hence the huge losses in the first days of the battle on the Somme (and this is no less than 60,000 soldiers!). The long name is "July 1916." The Battle of the Somme somewhat disorients the viewer, since it involves the story of this battle as such, or at least its episode. However, as I said, the main action takes place a few days before, and from the battle itself – only a few final minutes. There is no adversary here; it is something amorphous, invisible, yet constantly felt. They talk about it, they feel it, the war is only a background, the main thing is human feelings: brotherhood and mutual help, blindness and self-interest, those whose lives pass in the trench. Behind him - another world - invisible, like the enemy himself, deadly. Therefore, the original name - "Trench" reveals the whole meaning of the picture much more.
In my opinion, the film is very stretched. Of course, on the one hand, this corresponds to the task of the director of showing the real life of soldiers of trench warfare: endless drill, empty chatter, night patrols and perpetual splinters between privates, command, etc. The ending of the film leaves no questions, but whether it could have been different despite the purpose of this film pursued.
5 out of 10