Beautifully and accurately filmed, Birdsong moves slowly but powerfully
and gradually draws you in. This UK
production is a nice change from the usual fast faced, action packed war dramas
with a terrific supporting cast, costumes and sets.
The book
became a classic after it was published in 1993. This first interpretation of it on film as a television
mini series was released in 2012. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne is superb in this
war drama that mixes between his life and love affair in France before the war
and his experience as an Officer on the Somme battlefields.
I first
learned of Sebastian Faulk’s Birdsong when a family history researcher I had
been collaborating with alerted me to it.
My Great Grandfather’s brother had been a tunneller in World War
One. He had enlisted in his 40’s following
time spent on the Western Australian goldfields. The author’s description of the tunnellers
work and environment portrays conveys to me what the tunnellers had to go
through, the mini- series also depicts this well. I could not help but think about my Grand
Uncle while I watched this depiction and marvel that he at least physically survived
the horrors of the trenches, tunnels and battlefields of war.
No comments:
Post a Comment