Private Peaceful Film Review.

Private Peaceful film review.

" I don't believe in heaven. I'm not sure I've ever really believed in God….the church. I'd look up at Jesus hanging on the cross and wonder why God, who is supposed to be his father, almighty and powerful would let them do that to him. Would let him suffer so much."

Charlie: " He seemed to me like Jesus hanging on the cross in the church back home."

This 2012 adaptation, directed by Pat O'Connor is based on Michael Morpurgo's book. It proved so popular that by April 2004 it had been adapted into a play by Simon Reade and was first performed at the Bristol Old Vic starring Alexander Campbell before transferring to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London's West End.

The film stars Jack O'Connell (Charlie Peaceful), George Mackay (Tommo Peaceful), Alexandra Roach (Molly Monks), John Lynch (Sergeant Hanley) and the late Richard Griffiths (the Colonel) amongst its cast. It was shot on location in Ipswich and Suffolk.

Tommo narrates from 22.00 on the 24th of June 2016 to 06.00 on the 25th of June, whilst in solitary confinement, nervously fumbling with his late father's watch given to him by Charlie, his brother in No Man's Land. Eight excruciatingly painful and poignant hours before the tragic denouement…During those fateful moments where Tommo decries that every single moment "will be far too precious" he retells the story of his childhood, living with his family in Iddlesleigh, a farming community pre-first world war England. The action covers 1908-1916.

Morpurgo drew his inspiration for Private Peaceful and War Horse from interviews conducted with three farm-boy veterans who were  in their 80s. "There was no poetry in their stories, only horror and regret and great sadness for the loss of good friends."

Throughout the tale, the melancholic drones of "Oranges and lemons" can be heard from Big Joe to Tommo and finally Charlie. The three brothers. It is only when Tommo ominously mutters "here comes a chopper to chop off your head" then shockingly adding "you're dead!" that the whole tragedy is unveiled. "But who would shoot their own soldiers?" It will haunt you.

James Peaceful was a gamekeeper and forester for the Colonel living with his wife, Hazel and three sons in a tied cottage on the estate. The boys were exceptionally close and protective of Big Joe who was simple-minded. But it is Charlie's protective and fatherly relationship of young Tommo that will move you, right up until the end.

Tommo-the name represents an everyman character, had a close relationship with his father and he felt special when he helped his father fell trees. "I love it here. Just the two of us." Through his innocence and insecurity he asks his father who he loves most hoping he will say Tommo. James teases his youngest and answers Charlie. Not the right answer. Tommo storms off telling his father he hates him when divine intervention strikes as Tommo is trying to apologise. "I looked up to see the great tree above me swaying when all the other trees were standing still. I stood and stared, mesmerised at the gradual fall of it, my legs frozen under me, quite incapable of movement." James heroically saves his son's life but succumbs to his own sad demise and during Tommo's impressionable years gaining maturity he harbours a guilty secret that he finally unburdens in No Man's Land to his beloved Charlie: "I have inside me a secret so horrible. Father needn't have died that morning in Ford's Cleave Wood. He was trying to save me I have killed my own father."

Without a father to support his family, Hazel is offered a position as a lady's maid then in charge of the Colonel's laundry enabling the family to remain in the cottage. Charlie is taken on as a worker in the hunt kennels. A new gamekeeper, Monks replaces James who takes an instant dislike to the Peaceful brothers. His daughter, Molly becomes closely entwined and it is mutually reciprocated. A skinny dipping episode is momentous when she foretells the future with stones, a method used by gypsies. " The stones say that as long as we stick together we'll be lucky and happy 'til the day we die." Was it wishful thinking or was she tapping into her psychic energy? An infatuated Tommo asks her who she is going to marry and she teases with a Peaceful. Which one though?

Conflict arises between the brothers who both fall in love with Molly, culminating in Tommy telling his brother he hates him. War is declared and the novel then shows the brothers signing up for different reasons. For Tommy it is to stop the Hun from invading, the taunts of cowardice and a sense of adventure. He is too young to sign-up but falsifies his age. Charlie goes to keep a loving eye on his brother. Sergeant "Horrible" Hanley takes an instant dislike to Charlie, proving to be the bane of his life.

War is destructive, we know that and we are faced with many harrowing images of death. Can Charlie protect his brother and the million dollar question-can the boys survive the war? Can promises be kept…? Find out for yourself.

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"Both boys were charged. Both were imprisoned so why bring one of them to trial? Shouldn't both cases be dismissed?"
"We cannot have soldiers disobeying orders in the face of the enemy. I must pass the maximum sentence, then the final decision is for the general. And Haigh could show mercy."
"Then why bother to recommend the firing squad?"
"I'm not recommending it. I'm bound by the army act. You blame the government. The army runs on strict discipline but we're not inhuman."
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Oliver Wilde: "Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. (The Picture of Dorian Gray.)
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                            Suicide in the Trenches.  Siegfred Sassoon.

I know a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

There's something very dark and disturbing about Oranges and Lemons.

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clements.....
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head.

More than 290 soldiers were executed by firing squad between 1914-1918 of the British Commonwealth armies. Desertion and cowardice were punishable by death as well as more minor offences such as falling asleep whilst on duty. It is now known that many of these men were suffering from shell shock. Families of the deceased had to wait until 2006 before a conditional pardon was granted. A bit too late.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

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