Regeneration (1998)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I really enjoyed this film. I saw it as "Regeneration" (not Behind The Lines which a reviewer said was shortened) which Amazon video recommended to me since I am a history buff and have been watching a lot of military documentaries there. I am a military veteran (US, served in Iraq), and have had nightmares in the past according to my wife, so when I watch programs about veterans I am emotionally more involved and usually in a more powerful way than a typical drama. It was a cathartic experience and a good cry for me. The film was very very interesting early on but all the different characters and a long playing time made me lose interest in spots. Watching it at home at my leisure was an added distraction.The moment that really impacted me was with John Neville's character using electro-shock in a tortuous way, very dramatic and hard to watch. I have no idea how accurate this film is (it doesn't seem very accurate with my perception of the early 1900's mental treatments, but maybe England was more advanced and war does advance medicine faster that peacetime does not), but it was a good watch for me. Great acting all around! Recommended for military drama fans, 9 of 10.

Pat Barker's novel was completly destroyed when they made this film, the film takes a thoughtful book and replaces it with a load of mindless crap!The film jumps around the sequence and events and adds things to the plot to make the film more emotive. The acting was awful especially the guy who played Sasson, one of the greatest war poets. However Jonny Lee Miller was good although his character lacked definition as they left so many vital scenes out.Although the film does try to bring to life Pat Barker's novel it fails in a miserable pile mud and if it were fighting in world war 1 then it be shot down or shelled before it took a step. The exgeration of why Sasson got his MC was appalling, i do not belive it possible to take a german trench single handedly, the film was just pure bolocks seeing as Sasson actually got his MC for saving life not taking life. The film seems to ignore the fact that Pat Barker has taken facts and woven them into a story. The facts are history and the film makers should have never changed them, Sasson and Owen, and Rivers for that matter, are national hero's who should not be sidelined by a film to make the story seem more exciting.

There are very few films glorifying the first world war, called the "Great War" by those who fought and lived through it. If anything, Hollywood has avoided the subject and left it to a few European filmmakers, for very good reason. For sheer carnage, nothing has surpassed it. The slaughter of very young men was truly appalling. One can only imagine the reaction today if 50,000 men were dying each month to hold or advance over 100 yards of desolate mud. I went to school in England where the walls of our classroom were covered with the photos of pupils who had died in the war. Mostly aged 17. It was not until much later that I realised why there were so many unmarried middle aged women around in the 50's, when the writer Dr. Phyllis Bentley explained that there was no one for them to marry. An entire generation of men had been wiped out.Regeneration is a thoughtful anti-war film where the paradox of war is implied in a Scottish hospital for the treatment of shell shocked officers. The doctor has to get them well so they can be returned to the front lines, where they will more than likely be killed. The script is intelligent and the acting is superb. There are some allegorical scenes which do more to underscore the pigheaded arrogant mentality of the "establishment" which continued a war until quite simply, there was no one left to fight. Even sick men with TB were sent off to fight. Perhaps the saddest aspect of watching this film is when you realize that WWII began 21 years after the first once ended, just long enough for the new generation of soldiers to grow up.

Excellent glimpse at the darker underbelly of war. The film takes the viewer down a grim back-alley of the war-movie genre that is seldom visited. A great movie to watch as a counter-balance to such films as Patton and The Big Red One. Tomorrow (11 November) is Veteran's Day; this film should be shown every year around this time.(And at the end of the film, when the Germans were seen surrendering, who WAS that young German soldier that they briefly focused on? Anyone? Bueller?)