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The Trench [1999] | ![The Trench [1999]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z198PQHSL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: William Boyd (ii)
Actors: Paul Nicholls, Daniel Craig, Julian Rhind-tutt, Danny Dyer, James D'arcy
Studio: Entertainment in Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £3.82
You Save: £16.17 (81%)
New (12) Used (4) from £3.82
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 5490
Format: Anamorphic, Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017239190711
ASIN: B00004T8VK
Theatrical Release Date: April 19, 2000
Release Date: May 1, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: All of our items are brand new and take approx 4-6 working days (excluding weekends) from order to delivery. We only deliver to the UK.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Thought Provoking Movie October 4, 2007
ray dorrity (New Forest, UK)
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
Having read all the other reviews, I think that most of them are rather unkind to this movie.
Prior to the battle, the Somme area was a quiet backwater of the Great War with activity consisting of both sides daily lobbing a few shells into "No Man's Land" just to maintain the pretence that there was a war on. Neither side wanted to do anything but have a quiet life.
As for the soldiers being too clean, well in a non-combat area, baths and showers were available as was clean clothing.
The Somme area is chalk, so there would have been none of the mud usually associated with trench warfare.
I'm old enough to have had conversations with Great War veterans, like my grandfathers and other relatives and their perception of the war was of
99% total boredom and 1% sheer terror.
I enjoyed the movie, despite being a Great War buff. The weapons were correct, the uniforms correct. As for the movie, well scripted and well acted.
Worth the money. Buy and enjoy
 A terrible waste September 8, 2007
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
Set in the run up to the disastrous first day of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, The Trench isn't entirely worthless, but it's not a movie, more a filmed play (despite being written as a movie), and a very poor one at that with that 1970s BBC For Schools television look. The decision to shoot on a soundstage is particularly disastrous, since it never looks like anything but a soundstage, and this despite having a good cinematographer (Tony Pierce-Roberts). The decision to never leave the trench until the final scene doesn't really work, partially because we have no indication of the world that awaits them, but largely because Boyd's finale is just too televisual to have any compensating shock value. The abrupt jump to exterior for the last couple of minutes (and very tame they are too) is very noticeable, the film stocks and looks just not matching at all. Borrowing the final image of Gallipoli as well doesn't help.
Characters constantly explain what they're doing to each other despite having been in the trench for several weeks or months; there's no immediacy, no sense of danger, no sense of having to live in a fetid, claustrophobic open grave. Indeed, it's one of the most comfortable British trenches I've seen, with an absolutely level floor for the most part place. The soft barrage - the quietest I've ever heard for shells landing 700 yards away - doesn't help. Boyd really doesn't have any idea of the possibilities that cinema has to offer, either camera or sound. It's real problem, though, is that ultimately it's a polite, clean and determinedly inoffensive film about a dirty, ugly war.
Pluses are some good performances, most notably Daniel Craig and Paul Nicholls, the latter improving after a bland start to establish a credible screen presence. There are a couple of good scenes, too, but it doesn't really have the ring of truth or authenticity - the mood seems more influenced by hindsight than the actual mood in the run-up to the first day. Not only do you never feel you're there alongside them, but there's no sense of people caught up in, and disposed by the mad rush of a cruel history beyond their control. There's no dread, no fear, just observation. The shortfall between the film Boyd thought he was making and the one he did is made frighteningly apparent by his interviews in the EPK included on the disc.
 Thought provoking and emotionally powerful November 3, 2003
22 out of 30 found this review helpful
Though some of the finer points in this film are innaccurate and the charachters are somewhat stereotyped, overall it portrays brilliantly the absurd and hopeless nature of the war and the terror and hopelessness felt by the soldiers. The out of date tactics and strategies used to fight the war are shown in their true light and you are left with a real sense of how awful and tragic a war it was.
THE TRENCH IS HEART-WRENCHING STUFF December 16, 2002
30 out of 35 found this review helpful
Saw THE TRENCH recently, the first film by famed novelist William Boyd (Armadillo, A Blue Afternoon) and was very moved by it. An odd piece in its structure (very little happens until the last 10mn) as well as form (almost entirely studio-shot) the film's evocation of the absurdity of war was ultimately very successful.Disposing of any plot, Boyd slowly traces the 48hrs leading up to the Battle of the Somme, with a group of (very) young soldiers. They are bored, restless and scared and as an audience we are asked to go through the same journey. And when the inevitable does happen we are left in tears because we got to know and like those characters. This film is Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN but the other way round (in the Hollywood big budget blockbuster you start off with the battle and the death and the carnage and then you are bored for the following 2hrs!). For emotional payback THE TRENCH is a much more satisfying experience. Paul Nicholls' performance is probably too weak to carry the film but Daniel Craig's awesome display of charisma is in itself worth watching the film for. Also I would like to point out to so-called WWI experts who have written reviews for this film that the days depicted in this film take place in June when trenches were not muddy and wet, not yet at least. I do agree though that explosions would have rendered the field itself more lunar than grassy and luxurious. A definite recommendation. You will not regret it.
It was an ok; it did not go into detail about trench life. April 20, 2001
9 out of 18 found this review helpful
this film was brillant in the storyline. but in the detail and real life facts it did not do so good. the producers and directors should of thought a little more about what would had really happened. although it does give an outline of trench life and about what happened in the battle of the somme.
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