Behind the Lines (1998)

This extraordinary World War I film concerns themes of heroism, sacrifice, duty, and self-knowledge as profound as any in Saving Private Ryan. The story, taken from Pat Barker's 1991 novel Regeneration and based on true events, is set in a British Army hospital in Craiglockart, Scotland, in 1917. There, a pioneering psychiatrist named Dr. William Rivers (Jonathan Pryce) works with shell-shocked soldiers in a gentle, humane manner that contrasts sharply with the brutality of his colleagues. (The film's most horrifying scene features a mute patient being forced to speak by means of electric shock.)

Among Rivers's patients is a mute, amnesiac officer named Billy Prior (Jonny Lee Miller), as well as the emotionally depleted poet Wilfred Owen (Stuart Bunce) and another poet and war hero, Siegfried Sassoon (James Wilby). Unlike the others, Sassoon is not, in fact, suffering from any disorder but is being quietly punished for writing a pamphlet denouncing the war. The army hopes Rivers can find some basis for mental incompetency in Sassoon, but the thoughtful doctor instead attempts to persuade him to add legitimacy to his criticisms of the war by returning to active duty.

Pryce brilliantly captures the cumulative effects of Rivers's responsibility--of fixing men and sending them back to their possible deaths--on the good doctor's nerves. Wilby is also fine as Sassoon, but the film belongs just as much to actors Miller and Bunce, whose characters are different kinds of men struggling to find their balance, one through a revived sense of duty and the other through his writing. Scottish filmmaker Gillies Mackinnon (The Playboys) is at the top of his form, telling a unique story about the invisible wounds of war while shedding light on the meeting of two visionary poets and one visionary physician. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

War is ... Complicated

When Siegfried Sassoon threw away his medals and wrote against Great Britain's further participation in WWI, the British government responded by throwing him in a mental asylum for shell shocked soldiers. After all, a "gentleman" would have to be mad to oppose the "good" war.

It didn't change Sassoon's mind; however, during his stay in the asylum, he met and encouraged another WWI poet, Wildred Owen, to write some of the most damning and movie poetry of the war. Both Sassoon and Owen went back to the front. Sassoon survived, but Owen died just a few days before the Armistice.

This is a very well acted film about a little known event, especially in the U.S. The only complaint I have is that I could not purchase this DVD in widescreen, only letterbox. March 21, 2008

Behind The Lines

A rivetting drama based on real life events in WW1 and the psychological disasters occurring from service in the action on the western Front - well before the term 'Post-traumatic Stress Disorder" came into vogue. Full of drama, dilemmas and human emotion. Tightly edited and beautifully photographed. Well worth viewing, indeed repeat viewing. October 3, 2007

A good film that should have been a great one

Despite promising material - the relationship between World War One poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and the pioneering work of psychiatrist Dr W.H.R. Rivers in dealing with shell-shocked soldiers at Craiglockhart Hospital in Scotland - and Pat Barker's fine source novel, Regeneration (given a brief theatrical release in the US as Behind the Lines) is something of a disappointment. It's not so much that it's bad, though it does have many problems, more that it's not great when it could and should have been.

Gillies MacKinnon's direction is a big part of the problem, a victim of too much good taste and restraint and not terribly cinematic either, rarely venturing much beyond medium shots. The material needs attack and passion, but instead it feels like a well-staged piece that's too nervous about offending its potential audience's sensibilities to really go for the throat. The casting is problematic too: Jonathan Pryce is fine as the psychiatrist gradually assuming his patients maladies himself as he faces the irony of curing men so they can be sent back to possibly die at the front but Jonny Lee Miller remains unconvincing as the resentful working class officer Billy Prior, cutting far too contemporary a figure to convince in a period piece. However, the scenes between James Wilby and Stuart Bunce as Sassoon and Owen really take hold, and it's here that the film all too rarely finds its heart and soul. It's a film that stands up a lot better on a second viewing partially because of lower expectations, but it's much too polite to do its subject matter full justice. September 12, 2007

Good adaptation of Barker's Regeneration

I think Pat Barker's World War I trilogy is one of the finest literary works of this century. Thus it was a treat to see a film adaptation of the first of the three novels, Regeneration, in this DVD, "Behind the Lines". There were many solid strenghts to this film.

First, the cinematography and art direction was exceptional. The confined atmosphere of a Scottish mental hospital contrasted against the muddy horror of the front lines and trenches of World War I was exceptional. Scottland in quiet snow is contrasted with France in bloody mud.

Second, the acting is great. Jonathan Pryce did an excellent job of playing a humane psychiatrist that gradually assumes the psychosomatic symptoms of his patients. James Wilby and Jonny Lee Miller pay the other lead roles to perfection. However a surprize performer and performance was the great job Stuart Bunce did portraying poet Wilfred Owen.

Third, the script honored the complexity of Barker's novel. Dr. Rivers must treat shell shocked men so they can return to an insane war. The ethical and psychological issues abound from this situation. Sasoon, played by Wilby, is a hero who responds to the rising insanity of the war. He is a rational man of great courage and compassion. The fact that he is a hero makes his criticisms of the English military leadership even more biting. The contrast of the humane and gentle treatment provided by Rivers with that of one of his colleagues is amazing. A young man is repeatedly shocked with electricity around the tongue and mouth until his mute symptoms are suppressed. A very frightening demonstration of behavior modification at its worst.

My only wish would be that the second novel, "Eye in the Door" and the third novel "Ghost Road" had also been made into films. January 8, 2006

"He wasn't a man. He was a fighting unit...being repaired."

I'm quite surprised that this incredible war film has remained so obscure since it's U.S. release, although like the previous reviewers I can see how the deceptive title of "Behind the Lines" would mislead people into thinking of daring missions and epic battle sequences rather than an asylum. Even with very few combat scenes, "Behind the Lines" is a devastating portrait of World War I and one of the best depictions of the war I've ever seen.

Jonathan Pryce stars as Dr. William Rivers, an army psychiatrist who must treat and heal shell-shocked soldiers at an asylum in Scotland so he can return them to the slaughter at the front. Although other doctors use brutal electrical shock treatment to "cure" shell-shock victims, Rivers uses patience, kindness, and understanding to treat his patients. But when he meets Siegfried (James Wilby), a decorated war hero who's sent to the asylum for publishing an anti-war pamphlet, he's faced with questioning his own beliefs about the war. As he becomes more and more attached to his troubled patients, Dr. Rivers eventually finds himself suffering from symptoms of shell-shock, and he reaches the point where he's about to break down physically and emotionally.

This gripping film about World War I's devastating impact on the brave men at the front is one that you'll never forget. The music, superb performances, and incredible cinematography combine to make this one of the greatest war films of all time. Highly recommended! April 10, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...