LouHomey
From my favorite movies..
Doomtomylo
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
mikeburnsgln
Where to begin, where to begin...OK, let's start at the start. I guess the producers thought it would be a cute effect to give the German protagonist an English accent, so that we could see the similarities. However, rather than being cute it's confusing. Probably deliberately so, but as a plot device it falls flat. Once in miraculously-always-clean uniform, the distinction is made.Next. Our protagonists on both sides volunteer in 1914, and are rapidly in the front line. This could be correct for a German Kriegsfreiwilliger, but was highly likely not to be the case for a British 1914 volunteer - the first units raised in 1914 didn't see action until 1915, and many not until the Somme.There's so much that's wrong about it, I'll just list a few of the many, many massive clangers:Trenches apparently untouched by 7 days of bombardment.Soldiers who, we are told, haven't been able to eat or drink for 7 days somehow manage to find enough water to shave.Soldiers in the line practically all the time.A British front-line dugout that was roomy, well-lit, contained bunkbeds, with soldiers sleeping on mattresses under blankets, in their underwear, right before a big battle.Everyone dying at the Somme aside from out two protagonists, who are then free to wander around the battlefield.A West Indies Regiment corporal commanding British privates (err, nope, not in WW1, really, that could never have happened) for a prisoner escort through a miraculously untouched British-looking pine forest just behind the lines. Apparently the German lines were just beyond the untouched wood. If you only know one thing about WW1, it's that there were parallel lines of trenches from the North Sea to the Swiss border, so the idea that the German trenches were just beyond a wood IN THE BRITISH REAR is totally, ridiculously laughable.
Caz1964
I thought this was a good drama and am a little bit baffled as to why some people needed to see blood and guts to be entertained or convinced.Anyone who has studied or read about the history of WW1 would already understand about the horrors of trench life and going over the top into battle.The viewer doesn't need to be hit over the head with blood and gory details we can leave that to the imagination and besides too much graphic details would only detract away from the dialogue of this drama as this story relies mainly on its script of what the soldiers are saying{their thoughts aloud}and thinking.And i think it was awesome. Of course there is a lot we are not shown such as the grounds in the trenches were always muddy and fall of rats and body parts from dead soldiers used to prop or hang things from etc the list is endless of how things really were but then WW1 was always censored our government kept quiet for decades until the 1980s about the amount of soldiers whose bodies were still being found by farmers in France and Belgium,sometimes as many as a hundred a year.And also so many people were totally unaware of how many of our soldiers were cruelly shot at dawn or if they had even knew in the first place. I thought this was a nice tribute to the men who served and put the point across that it was the war that was evil and not the men who served.I think this drama is good for educating the younger generation who might not know much about WW1 as it portrays how misled the men back then were and how underage boys got sucked in on having to do their bit.Very tragic and its what this drama does well. The film Oh What A Lovely War was a British musical about WW1 this also didn't show blood and guts as everything was said in the dialogue in what the actors were saying.Passing Bells has used the same idea.
ianlouisiana
"Passing Bells" is The Great War seen as a fifth form project. It's undoubtedly a good thing to try to engage children's interest in the Conflict that destroyed the flower of Europe's youth and changed the map of that benighted continent for ever,but at least have the courage to present it as something other than a pastel - shaded commercial for a TV special about the below - stairs staff of Downton Abbey. If you're going to tell young people about the war do them the courtesy of treating them as intelligent beings. "War is hell" isn't just a phrase uttered by a General during the American Civil War - it is a statement of fact. I was waiting for Biggles or Bulldog Drummond to make an appearance. Children aren't spared the sight of hideously wounded soldiers coming back from Afghanistan - they know the cost of war today. Don't hold back from showing it multiplied a thousand - fold. The ending of "Passing bells" was telegraphed in the first ten minutes of the first episode,I doubt if it came as a surprise to any viewer over the age of eleven. Sadly,despite all the media coverage given to the centenary of the start of the war,there was only one person under 70 at the Remembrance Service in my local church yesterday.
manton183
I was so impressed by this 5 part series. We are brought up learning about WW1, but this also shows the emotional and personal side of WW1 from 2 young lads who are there. The 2 young actors are (imho) fantastic in the lead roles. At times it was just too much to watch, so enthusiastic about going to war and seeing a different country and then the horror of what they had signed up for. WAtching their friends dying at their side, cold, hungry, wet, and thinking it would only last for a few weeks/months at the most. PLus what the families back home were going through. Remember no social media back then, just a short letter once in a while, so totally no idea if they were dead or alive. Really glad I watched it. Would make a great learning series for schools I think.
