Regeneration

Gillies MacKinnon, 1997 (113 mins, Cert. 15)

The first part of Pat Barker's Booker Prize-winning trilogy has been adapted by Gillies MacKinnon into a moving and intelligent film. War poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen meet at a military hospital in 1917, where a sympathetic psychiatrist is attempting to deal with the effects of shell shock in the trenches. With a penetrating script and exquisite performances from James Wilby, Stewart Bunce and Jonathan Pryce.
(Barbican publicity)

A sombre, serious film dealing very directly with the apalling waste of human lives lost and marred by the prolongation of the Great War. Both Sassoon and Owen are sensitively portrayed, and at key points their poetry is allowed to speak for itself. Knowing that both men are doomed adds a special poignancy. Rivers, the psychiatrist charged with convincing Sassoon to return to active duty, is perhaps an even more interesting and complex character. A thoughtful and dedicated piece of work that deals with its subject with great respect, providing a moving and sobering experience. Beware that scenes of a colleague of Rivers using electric shock treatment are highly disturbing.
(Steve Fagg)

Seen: Saturday, 25th April, 1998 (Harlow Playhouse)