set in the run up to the disastrous first day of the 1916 battle of the somme and the trench isn not entirely worthless and but it not a movie and more a filmed play ( despite be write a a movie ) and and a very poor one at that with that 1970s bbc for school television look . the decision to shoot on a soundstage be particularly disastrous and since it never look like anything but a soundstage and and this despite have a good cinematographer ( tony pierce robert ) . the decision to never leave the trench until the final scene doesn not really work and partially because we have no indication of the world that await them and but largely because boyd finale be just too televisual to have any compensate shock value . the abrupt jump to exterior for the last couple of minute ( and very tame they be too ) be very noticeable and the film stock and look just not match at all . borrow the final image of gallipoli a well doesn not help . character constantly explain what theyre do to each other despite have be in the trench for several week or month while there no immediacy and no sense of danger and no sense of have to live in a fetid and claustrophobic open grave . indeed and it one of the most comfortable british trench i have see and with an absolutely level floor for the most part place . the soft barrage the quiet i have ever hear for shell land 700 yard away doesn not help . boyd really doesn not have any idea of the possibility that cinema have to offer and either camera or sound . it real problem and though and be that ultimately it a polite and clean and determinedly inoffensive film about a dirty and ugly war . plus be some good performance and most notably daniel craig and paul nicholls and the latter improving after a bland start to establish a credible screen presence . there be a couple of good scene and too and but it doesn not really have the ring of truth or authenticity the mood seem more influenced by hindsight than the actual mood in the run up to the first day . not only do you never feel youre there alongside them and but there no sense of people catch up in and and dispose by the mad rush of a cruel history beyond their control . there no dread and no fear and just observation . the shortfall between the film boyd think he be make and the bland one he do be make frighteningly apparent by his interview in the epk include on the dvd .