I have no doubt the book is one of the greats about the first world war, sadly this film doesn't do it justice. The episodic nature of the movie, while faithful to the style of the book, really doesn't work that well, preventing us from getting to really know the characters. The episodes we see tend to leave things unexplained, or leave us feeling we'd like to see or know more about what happened, and this results in the film being ultimately unsatisfying. The war itself, which was known by all protagonists as being fought in the most appallingly squalid, dirty, lice-ridden and horrific conditions, is shown here being fought in immaculately clean and neat trench systems that look like they have just been built in a B&Q depot, the corrugated iron sheets forming the trench sides are gleaming, pristine and new, the duck-boards and ground is neatly swept and tidy, and the men and their uniforms far too clean and smart to seem even remotely realistic. We are expected to believe that men are traumatised and mentally scarred for life by the conditions of war, and yet it all looks like it's set in a paintballing arena with no excess dirt or mud to be seen! It tries to be a good film, but somehow misses, and apart from the lead character, everyone else in the movie was just a cut-out character that you just couldn't feel anything for........ there really have been so many better movies on this subject that this one pales in comparison... sorry folks..
