Regeneration (1997)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Gillies MacKinnon

Writers:

Pat Barker (novel)
Allan Scott (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 August 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Between duty and destiny, loyalty and love, lies the road to...

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Poet | Class Conflict | Flashback | Firing Squad | Psychology

Awards:

17 nominations

Cast

Jonathan Pryce	...	Capt. William Rivers
James Wilby	...	2nd Lt. Siegfried Sassoon
Jonny Lee Miller	...	2nd Lt. Billy Prior
Stuart Bunce	...	2nd Lt. Wilfred Owen
Tanya Allen	...	Sarah
David Hayman	...	Maj. Bryce
Dougray Scott	...	Capt. Robert Graves
John Neville	...	Dr. Yealland
Paul Young	...	Dr. Brock
Alastair Galbraith	...	Capt. Campbell
Eileen Nicholas	...	Miss Crowe
Julian Fellowes	...	Timmons
David Robb	...	Dr. McIntyre
Kevin McKidd	...	Callan
Rupert Procter	...	Capt. David Burns

Also Known As:

Behind the Lines (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for war-related violent images, and some sexuality and language.

Runtime:

114 min | USA:96 min

Country:

UK | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Finland:S | New Zealand:M | Spain:T | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Overtoun House, Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The camera and the crane on which it is suspended are reflected in several puddles during the very opening shot (of the battlefield).

Quotes:

Capt. William Rivers: I find it interesting that you don't stutter.
Billy Prior: I find it even more interesting that you do.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Beautiful, wrenching picture of the effect of war on the human spirit.

For me, this film was, in a quiet, deeply felt way, much more powerful overall than "Saving Private Ryan," to which everyone seems to feel they must compare it (although regardless of one's opinion about their comparative merits, it is a false analogy in some ways because "Regeneration" is a WWI movie and addresses very different questions). While the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" are stunning and their impact incredible, after that it becomes a rather disappointingly conventional war movie.

"Regeneration" is different. It is not with graphically real blood spilled, but rather with powerfully wrenching emotion and with poetry that this film drives home what war does to the men (and women) caught up in its sweep. The film's use of the poems of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen is stunning, and while perhaps even more of their incredible poetry could have been employed in the film, the ones the filmmaker employs are carefully and perfectly chosen.

This is a war movie because its focus is on the war's destruction of men. But do not go into this film expecting the action of the battlefield to play out on the screen. There are a few scenes from the fields of France, powerful and well-placed in the film. And throughout the movie, you can just hear the dull thudding of shells, as if from a great distance - a striking reminder of how physical distance does not mean emotional distance. But if you are interested in the emotional impact those shells had, in an examination of the struggle to recover from that impact, (through poetry, through love, and through therapy), and in the moral questions raised by war, this is a stunning, deeply moving film you will not soon forget.