Private Peaceful (2012)

Nice effects though.

Excellent, a Must See

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Another film based on a Morpurgo novel,War Horse being the other,and like that film it's an exercise in emotional button pushing for the generation who are likely to know sod all about the history on which the work is based.It's laying on 21st century attitudes and morality to events which occurred 100 years ago when the world was very different.Yes it was terrible by our standards that deserters were shot and that poor defenceless horses were killed,but it's infinitely more horrifying that a huge portion of a generation who didn't run away, died or were maimed..The film is the cinematic equivalent of the kind of "ooh wasn't this terrible?" documentaries which infest the lesser Free To Air TV channels here in the UK.And by the way I'm by political persuasion a Lefty.The film making is OK.The story of the brothers growing up in a rural village in Devon is fine and Alexandra Roach has the bonniest smile on British TV.It's when the lads join up that it pumps out the clichés like a Lewis gun.Watch "For King And Country" for a good depiction of a soldier on trial for desertion and perhaps " Journey's End" for life in the front line(the 1970's version is really good".

Based on Michael Morpurgo's book, 'Private Peaceful' has garnered inevitable comparisons with Spielberg's 'War Horse' (to me a superior film, which is probably not going to be a popular opinion). On its own merits, it's a decent but not great film that does a lot right but somewhat too vanilla.Starting with the strengths of 'Private Peaceful', while not lavish it's very nicely shot in its own low-key way and even more expertly done is the contrast of the rustic charm of the early life scenes with the harrowing griminess of the war scenes. Rachel Portman's score is lushly orchestrated and understated without being over-sentimentalised.'Private Peaceful' may have a lot of familiar elements, but the relationship with their father, the sibling love rivalry and feuding with their sergeant are done competently enough, if very familiar elements done to much stronger effect elsewhere. The story is compelling and moving enough, everything about the film is well-intended and the direction is solid.The acting is what comes off best, or at least most of it. George MacKay and Jack O'Connell are very good as the brothers with a very natural bond between them, and they are well matched by a charming Alexandra Roach as well as tortured and gruff John Lynch, affecting Maxine Peake and blustering Richard Griffiths.Not everything comes off well. The dialogue can be stilted and awkward in flow, with too much signposting and melodrama in the early scenes. The child performances also don't come off naturally and are actually pretty amateurish, particularly for young Charlie.A little too much of the film is cliché ridden and sadly this would not have mattered if it wasn't so vanilla, meaning it's all there but with not much spark. Lastly, the ending is far too abrupt and too much of a head-scratcher.In summary, well done but bland. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Private Peaceful is adapted from the book by Michael Morpurgo. It is a low budget film that features the final screen performance of Richard Griffiths who plays the pompous retired headmaster, the Colonel.Told in flashbacks, the story is about two Devonshire brothers Tommo (George McKay) and Charlie (Jack O'Connell) who before the war was close and getting into scrapes such as upsetting the Colonel and fall for the young girl in the village Molly (Alexandra Roach.) It is Charlie who marries her. Now Charlie is facing the firing squad for alleged cowardice.Until their father died in a tragic accident, the family had a relatively good life. Their father was a gamekeeper and forester employed by wealthy landowners.Both join up to fight the Great War even though Tommo was too young. Charlie tries to take care of Tommo and concerned about Molly who became pregnant before they set of for Flanders. Charlie also crosses swords with a sadistic sergeant who proves his undoing as Charlie disobeys orders and stays with injured Tommo in no man's land that leads him to be court martialled despite both men surviving gas attacks and deaths of their fellow soldiers while in the trenches.Both actors play their roles with sensitivity and despite the low key nature of the film there is an anti war message in its core. The film shows an England in the flux of change which the war accelerates albeit still too slowly for some.General Haig signs Charlie death warrant while paying billiards in his country estate. No thought to delve deeper as to what actually happened. It is left to history to judge Haig.

With my dad's Birthday fast approaching,I suddenly remembered seeing a poster outside a local outhouse cinema a few months ago,for what looked to be a very interesting British WW1 movie.Tracking down the name of the title after checking the listings of movies shown in the art-house cinema's archive,I went straight away to Amazon UK,where I was shocked to find the movie being sold at an insane high price.Deciding to try and find put if there were any other DVD editions of the movie by searching online,I was instead happily caught by surprise,when I discovered that a supermarket website was selling the movie at an extremely good price,which led me to excitingly getting ready to experience "peace time" for the first time.The plot:1914:As he awaits his sentence for disobeying a general's order's to re-enter no man's land,Private Peaceful begins to think back to his childhood.1908-Devon:England.Being the 5th generation to work for the family as a games keeper and groundsman ,James Peaceful push's his annoyance over the family's superiority complex aside, by thinking about the wage that he receives,which is allowing James to send his 2 sons Charlie and Tommy "Tommo" Peaceful to a good school,as his loving wife Hazel looks after the couple's autistic son,"Big Joe" Peaceful ,and also feeling happy that one of his son's will follow in his footsteps in the future.Despite both of them playing some rather naughty games around the school yard,Tommy and Charlie each hold the bond with their family dearly.Joining his dad in the family ground's to help cut down some trees,Charlie fails to notice a huge tree failing near him.Pushing Charlie out of the way,Jack is sadly unable to avoid the falling tree,which leads to him getting crushed to death.Haunted by the sight of his father taking his dying breath,Charlie vows to do everything possible to make amends in himself for "killing" his dad.View on the film:Appearing within the first 5 minutes of the film (and also on a mini making of) the late Richard Griffiths makes his final screen appearance a joy to witness,with Griffiths making sure that the wealthy man who is currently hiring the Peaceful family,strong,traditional views are clearly shown,whilst also making sure to smartly deliver the dialogue in a charming manner,which allows for the character to appear much more dimensional than other actors would have allowed him to be.Taking place from 1908-1914,the Peaceful's children and childhood friends are each played by two different actors who brilliantly make each character's transition from childhood to adulthood feel completely natural,with Jack O'Connell and Hero Fiennes-Tiffin both superbly showing the deep scar that is left on Charlie from his father's death,which gradually becomes more consuming as Charlie and "Tommo" both decide to make their mum proud by signing up with the other youngsters in the village for the front line.Whilst some of the anti-WW1 sentiment that the character's express dose feel a bit against the real life events which took place in the "last gasp" era of the Victorian period, (where dozens of villages tragically lost almost all of their young men and boys,who largely signed up to join the front lines of WW1 in large groups of either friends or family) the adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel by Simon Reade carefully balances the tragic events that take place for the Peaceful family with that of the events of WW1,with Reade showing James sense of optimism being replaced by Charlie and Tommo having a deep desire for the darkened corners of the old era to fade away,in the faint hope of a new horizon slowly appearing.Shooting the WW1 scenes in an unflinching,raw manner which shows the full horrific world that Charlie and Tommo find themselves in,director Pat O'Connor and cinematography Jerzy Zielinski contrast the gritty nature of the 1914 scenes by making the 1908 scenes ones that are filled with a brightly lit sense of joy and peaceful optimism,which as the years get closer to 1914,tragically starts to fade away.