In the grand horror show that is humanity’s history of war,
World War I doesn’t seem to get brought up much anymore. The once-described ‘war
to end all wars’ has largely taken a back seat to World War II, Vietnam and even
America’s ill-guided ventures into the Middle East in the realm of cinema.
Whether that’s due to a more immediate connection to our present, the
heightened atrocities committed on all sides, or simply because the leaders in power during
WWI don’t have the instant recognisability of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt or
even Menzies, it’s not entirely clear.
Enter Peter Jackson, heralded filmmaker, vanguard of modern
cinematic technology, and a man whose grandfather fought on the western front
alongside Tolkien himself. While Peter made no secret of how much that would help form who he is today,
he has also turned that into a frankly startling look at the experiences of
those soldiers with this feature.
