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WAR TO END ALL WARS
WAR TO END ALL WARS
GOING OVER THE TOP WITH FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR WILLIAM BOYD
W orld War One was a turning point in
history. Without it our century might have evolved in a very different, almost unimaginable,
fashion. “What happened then made the 20th century modern,” states William Boyd, writer/director of
The Trench, latest in a long tradition of British films tackling this particular subject matter.
Indeed, it seems that while the Americans keep making films about the Vietnam war, the British obsess about World War One. “It was a loss of innocence that happened for Britain during World War One - the same that the US experienced in Vietnam. Something like that is stitched into the collective unconsciousness,” elaborates Boyd, who has already written two novels on the subject.
Making a medium-budget film about a historical event which usually calls for epic battle scenes with hun- dreds of extras is not an easy thing to pull off. However, determined to capture his vision of World War One on cellu- loid, Boyd developed a story idea that enabled him to do so: “I was inspired by Das Boot, because the other thing that is as claustrophobic as a Second World War submarine is the experience of the trench in World War One.
“So I thought here’s a way of mak- ing a film about World War One, a sub- ject that has always fascinated me, that doesn’t cost fifty million dollars “ Therefore most of the plot takes place in the enclosed space of a trench.
With so much emphasis on authenticity it’s not surprising that The Trench was mostly filmed on location in specially dug trenches in the Thames Valley. One would expect that such an enclosed space would pose considerable problems for a first time director, but not so for Boyd:
“The boundaries set through the location were very liberating. There were only so many people you could get on the set. I think on our busiest day we had 50 people in our trench - we couldn’t move! It was a relief to get back to our hardcore of 12 or 13.” Boyd continues: “It was almost like making a radio play. Once you know the structure you can work within that.”
In order to solve the space prob- lem the entire crew, including the director, were remote from the action in the trench with a suspended cam- era moving inside the set.
In the end, the camera does rise above ground level and we see the young soldiers fighting: “We spent most of our budget on special effects and explosions for these last few min-
offering me jobs directing movies.
I guess it’s because I’ve been very involved in films. I was co-producer of the last film I wrote and I’ve written several scripts that have been made. Also, when you’re a writer, you always have some kind of urge to direct. Therefore I thought I’ll just write something purely for myself and if it doesn’t happen then at least nobody else can do it.”
The Trench is set in the 48 hours leading up to the catastrophic Battle of the Somme in 1916 and tells the story of young men at war, as seen through the eyes of 17 year old Billy Macfarlane (Paul Nicholls from Eastenders and City Central). As Billy and his squad wait in the trench to be plunged into battle they live through almost the entire spectrum of human experience: friendship, animosity, deep boredom, profound trauma, fear and bittersweet recollection.
“It’s very character-driven,” says Boyd, continuing: “It’s about the pressure that very young men feel when they’re faced with the fact that this might be the end of their lives. For me, that was the one thing that I wanted to stress more than anything else: they are kids and there is a reason for this, since when you’re 20 you don’t really have a life yet. That’s why armies are kept young because they don’t reflect as much.”
While in Das Boot it was the unpredictability of submarine warfare that provided a sense of danger and constant tension, in The Trench it is the weight of history. “The British thought the Battle of Somme was going to be a walk-over but it was a disaster. Sixty thousand men died on the first day. So the ticking clock is the sense that you know that the battle is about to start. As you go through the film, the characters begin to realise that it’s not going to be any- where as easy for them as they were
Boyd admits that due to the restrictive location there were problems to be solved as far as camera movement was concerned. “I knew that in order to counterbalance the claustrophobia of the trench the camera had almost to be like a ghostly presence. It had to be able to move freely within the set.”
With Oscar-winning cinematograph- er Tony Pierce-Roberts (Howards End, The Remains Of The Day etc) at hand, this was their modus operandi: “We came up with this wonderful device for allowing the camera to be almost like a steadicam but without a steadicam operator, and it works fantastically well. Everything we wanted to achieve technically we did,” Boyd asserts.
utes.” But Boyd has every reason to be pleased: The Trench might not be an epic spectacle but it is a very con- vincing portrayal of war’s more inti- mate torments and horrors. Although The Trench marks
Boyd’s directorial debut, he is not a newcomer to the big screen. A best- selling novelist (Stars and Bars, Ice Cream War, A Good Man in Africa, Brazzaville Beach, Armadillo etc) he turned Stars and Bars and A Good Man in Africa into screenplays and also wrote the scripts for Mister Johnson, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and Chaplin.
Therefore the transition from writer to director was uncommonly easy for Boyd: “People just started
Photo: William Boyd director of The Trench with cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts
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