War Requiem **** (1989, Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier, Patricia Hayes) – Classic Movie Review 6483

Writer-director Derek Jarman’s 1989 film is a magnificent visual interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s 1962 ‘War Requiem’ and evocation of the life and death in the trenches of the World War One poet Wilfred Owen. There is no spoken dialogue, and the film runs on the music and lyrics of ‘War Requiem’.

Laurence Olivier who movingly reads Owen’s ‘Strange Meeting’, in his last film as The Old Soldier in a wheelchair, is the most famous face. But Nathaniel Parker as Owen and Jarman’s regular actress Tilda Swinton as the nurse make strong impressions of their own. Also in the cast are Patricia Hayes, Rohan McCullough, Nigel Terry, Owen Teale, Sean Bean, Alex Jennings, Claire Davenport and Spencer Leigh.

Jarman triumphs over this BBC film’s meagre resources, making it look stunning at all times with the help of Richard Greatrex’s cinematography. Jarman makes the most of Owen’s poems reflecting the war’s horrors, and his documentary montage of the 20th century’s wars, including also World War Two, Vietnam and Angola, is heartbreaking.

It is produced by Don Boyd, with Production Design by Lucy Morahan and Costume Design by Linda Alderson.

It is Olivier’s final acting role before his death on 11 July 1989, aged 82. It is the first film of Parker and Jennings.

Wilfred Owen, the soldier poet whose words inspired Benjamin Britten’s music, was killed in the last week of World War One at the age of 27.

Clancy Chassay, who plays young Wilfred Owen, plays young Ludwig Wittgenstein in Jarman’s Wittgenstein (1993).

Edward Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976).

Decca Records required that the 1963 recording of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) War Requiem, opus 66, be heard on its own, with no overlaid soundtrack or other sound effects.

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994).

Derek Jarman was born on January 31, 1942 and died on February 19, 1994. He is known for Sebastiane (1976), Jubilee (1977), The Tempest (1979), The Angelic Conversation (1985),  Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), War Requiem (1989), The Garden (1990), Edward II (1991), Wittgenstein (1993) and  Blue (1993).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6483

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