Journey's End

British director Saul Dibb's anguishing cinematic treatment of R.C. Sherriff's 1928 stage play Journey's End trains an unwavering but humane eye on the devastation of war that goes beyond the destruction of flesh and bone to the pulverization of the mind and the spirit. Sam Claflin stars as Captain Stanhope, a company commander in 1918 who is deep in the whiskey bottle as the film opens and never finds his way out. He is counseled and supported by the stalwart Lieutenant Osborne (Paul Bettany) and Second Lieutenant Trotter (Stephen Graham), both of whom are much loved by the soldiers under their command. Into their ranks comes a freshly minted second lieutenant, Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), a personal friend of Stanhope's who requested assignment to his friend's company, which has been assigned to hold a trench in northern France. Stanhope, embarrassed by his drinking, is at first cold to the new officer, who admires him still and understands little of what combat is actually about. In time, Stanhope receives word that the Germans will be moving on the company's position in a few days and the company can expect no assistance or relief. The film spends most of its time showing us what goes on beneath the surface among this group of battered, frightened but resolute soldiers, who, we realize, as they must, that they are little more than dispensable fodder.