War Requiem (1989)

Director:

Derek Jarman

Writer:

Wilfred Owen (poems)

Release Date:

6 January 1989 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

A film with no spoken dialogue, just follows the music and lyrics of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem...

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Nurse | Poet | Singer | Piano

Cast

Nathaniel Parker	...	Wilfred Owen
Tilda Swinton	...	Nurse
Laurence Olivier	...	Old Soldier
Patricia Hayes	...	Mother
Rohan McCullough	...	Enemy Mother
Nigel Terry	...	Abraham
Owen Teale	...	Unknown Soldier
Sean Bean	...	German Soldier
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Milo Bell
Harvey Cooper
Claire Davenport
Antony Gabriel	...	Liet. Harper
Alex Jennings
Thomas Kett	...	Recruit
Kim Kindersley	...	Soldier 2
Spencer Leigh	...	Soldier 1
David Meyer	...	Lieutenant
Tony Red Richards	...	Soldier
Linda Spurrier	...	Nurse 3
Richard Stirling	...	Soldier 1
Clancy Chassay	...	Young Wilfred Owen (uncredited)

Directed by
Derek Jarman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Wilfred Owen		poems

Produced by
Don Boyd	....	producer
Chris Harrison	....	associate producer
John Kelleher	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
Richard Greatrex

Film Editing by
Rick Elgood

Production Design by
Lucy Morahan

Costume Design by
Linda Alderson

Makeup Department
Bernard Floch	....	makeup artist
Peter King	....	key makeup artist
Peter Owen	....	makeup designer

Production Management
Sarah Swords	....	production manager

Art Department
Josh Jones	....	carpenter
Kevin Rowe	....	art department assistant

Camera and Electrical Department
Steve Brooke Smith	....	clapper loader

Casting Department
Abi Cohen	....	casting assistant

Music Department
Benjamin Britten	....	music by

Production Companies

• Anglo International Films
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Liberty Films (I)

Distributors

• Movie Visions (1990) (USA) (theatrical)
• UPLINK Company (Japan)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

UK:PG | Spain:18

Company:

Anglo International Films

Trivia:

First film of Nathaniel Parker.

Intermittently effective screen counterpart to Britten's Mass setting

With the exception of an opening sequence in which the music is introduced over a tolling bell and the text of Wilfred Owen's Strange Meeting read, this film follows the scheme of Britten's War Requiem, a poetry-expanded musical setting of the Requiem Mass. It's an intermittently effective project, Jarman using both narrative scenes and more abstracted tableaux that rely on the actor in frame to channel some sort of internal narrative. There is also scattered use of period footage from conflicts both pre-1963 (the date of the oratorio's composition) and as recently as the Falklands conflict (1981). All this is, in turn, the extrapolated daydream of a veteran of the Great War, played by Lawrence Olivier.

Olivier's is the almost the only scene done on location and really does carry weight for all that it's mere seconds of screen time. Other scenes are rather more mixed: given the huge emotional and indeed satirical charge of the music the most affecting set pieces are those that play a straight narrative. That said, there is undeniable charge in the formal composition of static shots which reflect in their old master/biblical referencing the liturgy of the text. 5/10