paudman

I'd have given this a ten - wonderful acting, a genuine look into 1930s society and those 'below stairs'... but it was ruined towards the end. It's a wonderful mix of snobbery, gossip, and class, an almost perfect picture of life back then. It's not slow, it's stately, things were never rushed - "An Englishman should walk, but never run" sort of thing - and it fills in every detail from top to bottom, from the snootiest lady to the lowliest maid, those who had everything and those who looked after them day to day and hour by hour. Why oh why then did they introduce this complete fool of a Police Inspector played by Stephen Fry? He's just a bumbling idiot, a farcical character that does not fit in anywhere. What was the director trying to portray? Certainly not the British Police of the 1930s. It completely ruined the movie for me with a rapid descent into comedy that did not sit at all with the first two thirds of the atmosphere. Still very worth watching but how I wish I could leave that clown out.

This is a serious topic, a man who believed so strongly in his principles that he was prepared to go into battle unarmed to save life rather than take life, and through his selfless bravery won his country's highest honour. Why then did I laugh so much? Death, horror, blood, pain, screaming, men killed in their youth, the father still so horrified by his WW1 experiences that he can't see his son off to more in the next war. It's not funny. What on earth was Mel Gibson thinking? The movie is full of cliches, not to mention made up from characters of previous movies - we have the bully (Biff from Back to the Future) the cheesy "where are we all from" introductions (from Starship Troopers) and the nickname awards to each belittled soldier (Full Metal Jacket), the nude over-the-top muscleman with the little moustache (Scream)... the guy who gets the knife through his boot and still stands to attention in front of Sergeant Zim (Starship Troopers again, only there it was through a hand) ... laughable. The battle scenes... when the 'corpse' sat up and the soldier screamed (Living Dead) it was risible, but when the soldier picked up the half body and stormed forward, BAR in hand, mowing down the Japs... it was comic-book moviemaking and I gave up. A serious, moving topic given a slapstick treatment. I'll award it five due to the subject matter, not the production of it, and fast-forward to the end once I have nothing better to do.