Any similarities between Private Peaceful and War Horse are entirely deliberate. Both are written by former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, and a children’s film this is, although one for older children the war sequences are fairly tough and there is some bloodshed.
This story tells of the road to Flanders from a sleepy village in Devon, where two brothers enlist. Both, we learn in flashback, have already seen tragedy Tommo Peaceful (George Mackay) has witnessed his forester dad dying under a falling tree, and both have fallen for the same girl. Molly.
A girl can only love one boy though, and she chooses older brother Charlie (Jack O’Connell), much to Tommo’s anguish. Both lads worship their mum (Maxine Peake, excellent) and put up with working as labourers on the estate of blustering old duffer Colonel (Richard Griffiths), who believes all fit men and horses should be sent off to war.
So off the two lads go, only to suffer more on the battlefields than they ever did as simple farm hands,much to their shock. Their sergeant is a sadistic psycho, their commanding officer a well-meaning buffoon, and the war seems to be run by, at best, idiots. The brothers will be fine as long as they stick together, but one will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to save the other.
It’s difficult to criticise the film on many levels it’s well-made, handsomely photographed, well-acted, thoroughly researched and the battle sequences are well edited. The script though reverts to stereotypes too often, even for a children’s film.
We have the red-faced military duffer, the shouty moustachioed sergeant, the doe-eyed English maiden, the well-meaning hard-working farmer. The two brothers are little more than caricatures early on they save a dog from being put down to win the heart of the pretty girl, and save each other at the awful school.
Stalwarts Griffiths and Frances de la Tour do their best with cardboard cut-out roles, and Peake is sympathetic as the brothers’ long-suffering mother. However it all plays out somewhat predictably, and at 104 mins might be too long for the average age of its audience, which will presumably be around the 12-16 mark.
Overall verdict: If the kids loved War Horse and want some more of the same thing this fills the gap nicely. It’s a solid, if predictable, addition to the films about the Great War, although its place in the pecking order will be fairly low down.
Reviewer: Mike Martin