BENEDICTION

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https://www.benedictionmovie.com

Date Reviewed: 03/06/2022

Five stars are just not enough for this film!

Benedictions chronicles the life of Siegfried Sassoon,  one of England’s great poets, who survived the horrors of the First World War and was decorated for his bravery but who became a critic of the government's continuation of the war when he returned from service.

His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Admired by members of the aristocracy as well as luminaries of London's literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.

At the same time, appalled by the horror of war, he made his life's journey a quest for salvation, trying to ‘cure’ himself by entering the conformity of marriage and religion. His story is one of a broken man in a broken world searching for peace and self-acceptance, something which speaks as meaningfully to our modern world as it did then.

Sensitively directed by Terence Davies (who also wrote the script) and beautifully photographed by Nicola Daley  this film captures a lost period while still remaining relevant.

The film is made up of conventionally filmed scenes, archive first world war footage, grim clinical photographs, back-projections and superimpositions from which the figure of Siegfried Sassoon emerges: the hero who won the Military Cross for gallantry, but went on to oppose the war, write poetry about the hell of the trenches and befriend and inspire the young Wilfred Owen – yet after the war endure a long anticlimax of obscurity, disappointment and loneliness.

Jack Lowden is magnificent as Sassoon or ‘Siggy’ as he is popularly called. He captures every nuance of Sassoon’s tortured soul and is compulsive viewing.

His efforts to live with the ‘love that dare not speak its name’ and live a ‘normal’ life are heart rending to watch as he is forced to end the relationship that could have fulfilled his existence, that of Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson).

When the relationship is torn apart, he turns to other men, Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine) and Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch as the younger and Anton Lesser as the older). These prove to be empty so in an effort to find acceptance he marries Hester Gatty (Kate Phillips as the younger and Gemma Jones as the older).

This enables him to be socially acceptable but does not resolve his inner struggles, so much so that by his older age (played by Peter Capaldi of Doctor who fame) he comes to the realisation that he has never been truly happy since his break with Wilfred Owen, beautifully highlighted by a flash back featuring Owen’s poem Disabled.

Also worth mentioning are Tom Blyth as Glen Byam Shaw (one of Sassoon’s ‘friends’) and a memorable Edith Sitwell played by Lia Williams.

Benediction is not so much a movie as an emotional experience with lessons for all of us!

Reviewed by Barry Hill