Regeneration
- Director: Gillies MacKinnon
- Writer: Pat Barker; Allan Scott
- Producer: Kathy Avrich-Johnson; Eddie Dick
CGiii Comment
Don't be misled into thinking that this is a condensed version of the sweeping trilogy...this is a trivialisation of Part 1.
Skirting the issues and avoiding the sexualities...it's a sterile fabrication of the truth and of the novel - which is unforgivable.
Neither writer nor director were up to the task that was put before them...vindication of their lack of talent.
Owen's homosexuality - briefly hinted at.
Sassoon's homosexuality - completely ignored.
Prior's bisexuality...not a whiff - (but that's not revealed until the third part of the trilogy).
There will be no second or third film simply because they botched the first.
Scandalous - to say the least.
***
'Owen...do try writing something about the War.'
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
by WILFRED OWEN
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep.
Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod.
All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped
Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!---
An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,---
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Based on Pat Barker's novel of the same name, 'Regeneration' tells the story of soldiers of World War One sent to an asylum for emotional troubles. Two of the soldiers meeting there are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets.
Cast & Characters
Jonathan Pryce as Capt. William Rivers;
James Wilby as 2nd Lt. Siegfried Sassoon;
Jonny Lee Miller as 2nd Lt. Billy Prior;
Stuart Bunce as 2nd Lt. Wilfred Owen;
Tanya Allen as Sarah;
David Hayman as Maj. Bryce;
Dougray Scott as Capt. Robert Graves;
John Neville as Dr. Yealland;
Paul Young as Dr. Brock;
Alastair Galbraith as Capt. Campbell