Northern France, 1917. Australian Private Joseph Richmond and his fellow soldiers from the 18th Battalion A.I.F. have retreated into a supply trench during an artillery barrage. After being left by himself to act as a listening post, Joe discovers the all-important trench periscope has been damaged, meaning he has to poke his head above the parapet to determine enemy movements after he can overhear them close by. After exchanging shots with an unseen enemy, he retreats, but is confronted by a mysterious soldier. The soldier tells Joe go with him, even though he is not Joe’s relief. Joe refuses to leave his post without proper orders. The soldier reveals himself to be Joe as well, that Joe’s shooting exchange was fatal, and he has been dead ever since. The mysterious soldier represents everything Joe had to leave behind to become a soldier, but now he is dead, the two must reunite so Joe’s soul can meet its destiny.
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Reviews
the audience applauded
Did you people see the same film I saw?
Blistering performances.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
I've watched this twice now and I am still discovering things about it as I mull it over in my my mind.This is the kind of thing TV did in the 'golden days' where writers, directors, producers and actors were able to experiment and stamp a certain amount of quality on the broadcasting channels before mindless, financially cheap, safe and brain-numbing pap became the drip-feed of torpor that TV serves up today as it sells the viewers to the advertisers for increasingly lengthy (and seemingly synchronised) advertising breaks.Today, writers etc., have to scrabble round trying to raise finance to make these kind of short play-lets. The fertile breeding ground of the sixties and seventies has been lost to us....and it is a great loss.This film, in its time-limit, says a lot about the casual-ness of death in a period of unbelievable destruction and the effects it would have on relatives. This is the distilled story essence of films like Gallipoli and Beneath Hill 60 etc., which took longer to stress their point (not a criticism, as I enjoyed those kind of films).Whether one believes in ghosts or the afterlife doesn't really matter in this case. It is a well produced, written and directed short that doesn't disappoint. Graham Brisset (not a professional actor, I believe) is outstanding as the soldier. His voice and facial expressions as he comes to the realisation of what has happened (to him) are just spot-on.This script (and the compressed area of action & dialogue) would make a wonderful stage play for an amateur or school production.
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