I love this movie so much

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.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I am astounded by the relatively low ratings this movie has received ; apparently critics as well as the general public are hooked on over dramatization , focus on superstars playing superstar characters , and of course , the romance on the side. The Trench reflects painstaking research and a devoted effort to portray World War One trench warfare the way it really was . The language , the mores , the overall culture of the time are served up straight , without overdoing it . There is certainly plenty of violence , but the depiction of it is commensurate with the demands of historical accuracy . Anyone knowledgeable about the war , anyone with a genuine interest in the time period , will relish the movie . The critics speak more their addiction to immediate gratification....a sign of our times...than they do about this fine , grossly underrated film .

'The Trench' is basically a World War 1 drama with a host of 'soon-to-be-famous' faces, including Daniel Craig, Cillian Murphy and Danny Dyer (the latter of which produces arguably one of the best performances of his career). It does its best to portray life on of the most depressing and violent conflicts in the history of man. But does it do it well? It's hit and miss. First of all, with a cast list as above, you can't really fault the acting. Everyone does their best with what's provided. However, where it falls down is the story. There isn't really one. But then that's hardly the film's fault, more a by-product of the subject matter. You can't really tell the story of the entire First World War in an hour and a half, so the film concentrates on just the build up to the first few days of the battle of the Somme.The characters just wander around, waiting for the final call from the military's top brass to send them over the top in an attempt to gain ground from the Germans. You get to know some of the soldiers and naturally care for their fates, it's just the whole film is really just about showing the conditions they had to live in, rather than telling a story which wasn't really there to begin with.I grew up on Blackadder (Goes Forth) and felt, despite its 'comedy' tag, it was somehow more touching than The Trench managed. Plus both the TV show 'Blackadder' and the film The Trench seemed to have similar budgets when it came to sets. I know it's a minor gripe, but everything in The Trench was 'filmed from above' so to speak. That way you never saw the sky (with the exception of about two shots). I know this might have been designed to heighten the 'claustrophobic' nature the soldiers had to live in, but it just felt cheap to me – like everything was simply filmed on a 'trench set.' Plus the soldiers' uniforms looked way too clean to be rolling around in mud for months on end! If you're looking for a film that shows the conditions of what the soldiers had to live in then this is it. If you want something with drama and poignancy then try Blackadder Goes Forth (plus it has humour, too). 'The Trench' isn't a bad film. It's just that it's hard to make a story out of just showing soldiers in the trenches.

This movie is an excellent dramatization of what it must have like to be a soldier in the trenches on the Western Front prior to a major attack. The waiting seemed interminable, which added to stress of knowing that you may be killed. The movie shows that the soldiers really have no idea why the war is being fought. Unlike World War Two, which was ideologically driven, World War One was fought for reasons that are less clear. This movie provides a microcosm of what the conditions were all along the front. The trenches (at least those dug by the British), were little more than extended fox holes, intended for temporary use only. That soldiers were required to stay days and even weeks in those mud pits is appalling, yet true. That the British soldiers put up with these conditions with mutiny, unlike the French soldiers, is a testament to their discipline and loyalty. Tragically, for many, it was not enough to save their lives. As the movie shows, once in No-Man's Land, the bullets from the enemy machine guns did not discriminate as to their targets. Plans can go wrong, and this movie they go grievously wrong.

.... because the opening title sequence is very bland . Compare it to the shocking title sequence of the 1960s BBC documentary THE GREAT WAR . As the film goes on we`re introduced to the characters and I couldn`t help noticing that one is Southern English , a couple are Northern English , a couple are Jocks , a couple are Irish while the sarge is a scouser . I`m sorry but I was convinced that British army infantry regiments of the period were composed of " Pals battalions " , that is battalions composed entirely of men from the same home town . Take for instance the 16th battalion of The Royal Scots which was formed in one week and was called " The Hearts battalion " because it was composed mainly of supporters of Hearts football club . The 16th Royal Scots even had 16 Hearts players in its ranks so I don`t believe for a moment that any British army infantry platoon was as regionally mixed as the one here The more THE TRENCH goes on the more I found myself questioning the accuracy of the movie especially its mood and its sense of time and place . A British made trench in France in 1916 . Since when did the Brits build trenches like the one seen here ? It even has a concrete floor that the Germans would have been proud of which seems to go against I`ve seen in photographic evidence . The film also has an anachronistic cynical air , what on the eve of the Somme ? The British troops had witnessed day upon day of hellish bombardment of the German positions and a lot of British soldiers had begun to feel rather sorry for Jerry , and no one but no one in the British lines had any reason to doubt anything less than a swift , spectacular British victory . Of course one day and 20,000 dead British soldiers later changed these thoughts , in fact some historians describe the date 1st of July 1916 " The day British idealism died " . One final point - As at least one other commentator mentioned THE TRENCH contains a large amount of swear words . It has been documented that one criticism by the real life survivors of BAND OF BROTHERS was that the HBO/BBC drama contained too much swearing and that people in the 1940s used far less profane words than people use nowadays . I`m inclined to believe them and I`m also inclined to believe people in 1916 probably swore less than people in the 1940s so I doubt if the men in the trenches used the " F " word in every sentence Unfortunately who German bullets didn`t claim on that grim day have been killed by the passing of time so the chances of someone who was there writing into this site and telling us their opinion of THE TRENCH are very remote . A pity because I`d be very interested what they thought of it . As for myself I found the ending moving ( How could it not be ? ) but the rest is rather poor history and a rather poor film that seems to have homo erotic undertones