A good movie

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick and since it was directed by Peter Jackson, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, there is no denying that this movie was and still is a technical marvel. Indeed, when you hear these veterans, it felt as if they had recorded their testimony just a week ago but, even if the Great War didn’t kill them, they are all certainly dead by now and they had been recorded decades ago. And, of course, there was this awe-inspiring moment during which you smoothly switch from a black-and-while little square to a full colour panoramic screen which was probably one of the most exhilarating things I have seen on a screen. Even though it might seem like a useless gimmick, I thought it was actually terribly effective and it felt like a time machine brought you back 100 years ago directly in these damned trenches. And yet, even if this movie was technically pretty much flawless, I was somehow not completely sold. Indeed, even though the title was pretty much spot-on and might suggest that it would be a rather dark and depressing movie displaying the horror of the so-called ‘Great’ war, I thought that the tone turned out to be rather light, even almost cheerful at some points. Seriously, for the 1^st half hour, we had these veterans claiming that they basically had a great time there or, at least, that there was nothing wrong about doing your duty. As a result, it felt pretty much like watching some propaganda piece. Of course, towards the end, suddenly, they all claimed that it was horrible and that it should be the last war but, in my opinion, they should have toned down the ‘enthusiasm’ at the beginning and spend more time on the dreadful impact this war eventually had on all these British soldiers. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didn’t really care for the approach they chose, it was still a very interesting movie and it is definitely worth a look.