The Trench *** (1999, Paul Nicholls, Daniel Craig, Danny Dyer, James D’Arcy) – Classic Movie Review 1406

Screenwriter/director William Boyd adapts his own novel for this 1999 First World War wartime film drama in which a platoon of young British soldiers bicker in a tiny 8ft-wide trench in the last 48 hours of the build-up to the 1916 disastrous Battle of the Somme.

When the order comes for them to join the first wave of attacks, they are of course unaware they will be there in battle when the British Army loses the greatest number of soldiers in a single day in history. The lads will have to depend on their Lieutenant and Sergeant for their survival.

As we have come to expect of British films, the performances are first rate, with the actors relishing Boyd’s dialogue. Paul Nicholls makes a strong mark starring as the 17-year-old Billy Macfarlane, who has volunteered for service along with his older brother Eddie (Tam Williams), Julian Rhind-Tutt impresses as the scholarly Second Lieutenant Harte, but Daniel Craig steals the show as the acidic, war-hardened Sergeant Telford Winter.

Danny Dyer (as Lance Corporal Victor Dell), James D’Arcy (as Private Colin Daventry), Cillian Murphy (as Private Rag Rookwood) and Ben Whishaw (in his film debut aged 19 as Private James Deamis) are also notable in the sterling cast.

As lovingly written and directed by Boyd, this is a conscientious, emotional, sometimes stirring literary dissection of often disastrous World War One attitudes and feelings as the trench starts to stink with the smell of boredom, fear and panic. And it is definitely worthwhile to check out the young cast going places.

On 1 July 1916 – the first day of the Battle of Somme – 60,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, most of those in the first two hours of the attack. It remains the bloodiest day of slaughter in the history of the British Army.

Nicholls and Dyer both star again in Goodbye Charlie Bright (2001).

Ben Whishaw met Australian composer Mark Bradshaw on set while making Bright Star in 2008, and they joined in a civil partnership in Australia in August 2012. He played Q to Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Skyfall and Spectre, and was also in Layer Cake (2004) with Craig.

On 13 July 2017 Paul Nicholls fell from a waterfall into a rock pool in Thailand, smashed his leg and was trapped alone without food for three days until rescued after a villager spotted his abandoned bike.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1406

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/