User Reviews

The last episode of Our World War: War Machine was also to me the best of the series and focusing on tank warfare.

It is nearing the end of the war and it is the invention of the tanks that could break through enemy lines.

However we have added, poignant drama. Chas Rowland, a mechanic is part of the claustrophobic tank crew under the command of Lieutenant Mould who appears to be rather reasonable but willing to make tough decisions when it is demanded.

The fly in the ointment is gruff hardened Scot, Dodds who has lost all his brothers to the war and seems to dislike the young soldiers around him.

The tank takes part in the battle of Amiens, mowing down Germans whilst the air support bomb from above. The unit arrives to the town of Amiens for hand to hand combat. The German resistance breaks and victory is at sight.

All along we Chas dreaming of life at home with his girl, a photo of her which he keeps and cherishes. A coda at the end makes it clear that the photo belonged to a fallen soldier and he delivers it to her in the end. The idea of being at home with a loved one was an important source of solace to these young soldiers.

As with other episodes in this series, the battle scenes were again inspired by video games but rather more restrained here. However the tank battle scenes also reminded me of the film Fury also released in 2014 which also had this video game like footage in the action scenes.

The final episode in this three-part drama series is set at the Battle of Amiens in 1918, when the newly-invented tank helped the Allies break through the German lines and expedite the end of the First World War.

Bruce Goodison's drama captures the claustrophobic life inside the tank, where several men have to work in an exceptionally confined space with an eccentric engine belching out noxious gases. Thus it's hardly surprising to find most of the men vomiting. The tank commander Lt. Cohen (John Hollingworth) is an unselfish leader, but nonetheless aware of war's realities; when the time comes to decide whether or not to leave a wounded man lying on the ground (Shaun Dooley) or carry him as a virtual passenger, he chooses the first option. It might not be popular with his fellow crew-members, but it is the right decision.

The drama focuses on the conflicts within the crew, notably between surly Scot Burns (Niall McNamee) and mechanic Dodds (Chris Reilly). Burns believes that Dodds is somehow "unfit" for active service, simply because he is a mechanic, not a soldier; Dodds, on the other hand, cannot understand why his Scottish colleague should be so surly, despite the exigencies of war. Director Goodison does not take sides, but rather invites us to see how the human spirit is often adversely affected under extreme conditions.

The drama contains a sub-plot in which Chas Rowland (Gerard Kearns) puts a photo of a woman up in the tank and is seen reading a letter. Throughout the drama we are led to believe that this woman (Anna Bolton) is his wife, but the ending proves otherwise. Through several flashback sequences showing her standing next to a cottage, or kneeling on the battle-field, Goodison shows how she not only represents a form of security for soldiers in battle, but represents a pleasurable alternative to the quotidian horrors of battle. She is the symbol of sanity in an insane world.

Atmospherically shot, with a series of graphics explaining the progress of the battle - a British victory obtained at terrible human cost - "War Machine" provides an excellent coda to a powerful series of drama-documentaries.