It's a measure of the play's reputation, that Prince Andrew himself intervened to resolve a rights issue to get the film made. The film version of Journey's End was commissioned back in 2014 by the United Kingdom's First World War Centenary. Journey's End can be seen at Cineplex Varsity, Starring: Sam Claflin, Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones, Tom Sturridge. Near the end of the film, when the company stages a raid to capture an enemy soldier, it's both terrifying and liberating, like the lid has been taken off the pressure cooker. Between production designer Kristian Milsted and cinematographer Laurie Rose, we have a keen sense that this mud-brown space, while grave-like in its claustrophobia, is removed from the carnage that awaits the soliders mere meters away. The trenches themselves, sometimes conveyed as simple ditches, are portrayed as a complex system of zig-zagging underground rooms with connected passage ways, that suggest rats' warrens. The characters pass what will their remaining time talking about the contents of the meat cutlets and hoping for canned pineapples instead of apricots. The drama of fear and distraction anticipates theatre of the absurd, especially Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Sheriff originally considered titling his play, Waiting). What might have slipped into cliche feels surprisingly timeless here, thanks to Saul Dibb’s taut adaptation and the cast’s understated performances. Rounding out the cast is Tom Sturridge as the frightened Hibbert and Toby Jones as a stoical working-class chef, listening into the officers' talk as he provides tea, whiskey and the latest canned food. Raleigh gets some comfort from Lieutenant Osborne ( Paul Bettany), a gentle former schoolteacher, and the play's incarnation of selfless nobility. But Stanhope is embittered, shell-shocked, and drowning his fears in alcohol every night. The characters feel familiar, perhaps from the many war films that have followed the play's template: There's the eager fresh-from-college greenhorn, Raleigh ( Asa Butterfield ), who has pulled strings to join a former school monitor and beau of his sister, Captain Stanhope ( Sam Claflin) in what he thinks will be a "frightfully exciting" experience.
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