Although more than a hundred years have passed since its inception, the world has never truly forgotten how much the First World War changed virtually every aspect of modern society – and the arts was no exception. The war gave birth to a whole new generation of ‘war poets’, with a few among them, such as Wilfred Owens and Robert Graves, having since become the most recognizable. However, there are very few quite as illustrious as Siegfried Sassoon, the focal character of the latest film from Terence Davies: Benediction.
Indeed, the film as a whole functions as a sort of character study for Sassoon, with it depicting three vignettes of his life, in which his younger self is portrayed by Jack Lowden and his older self is portrayed by Peter Capaldi: His life as a soldier who firmly declares his opposition to the war, his post-war life as an author who struggles to maintain relationships as a closeted gay man, and his life as an elderly Catholic convert who has trouble reconciling with his adult son. There’s plenty of other great actors present, but the two previously mentioned are definitely among the better parts of this film; although we don’t see Capaldi as often as Lowden, they both do a fantastic job. Neither play Sassoon as the sort of perfect victim or tragic hero that he’s come to be immortalised as in literary circles, but as much of a real person as could possibly be shown in two hour film: Sure, he’s talented and firmly stands up for the right cause, but he’s also haughty, stubborn, and as an old man, cankerous and evasive. I also appreciate that Benediction doesn’t attempt to be this grand, sweeping epic that posit their protagonist as a hero (as most biopics try to be), but is content with simply showcasing slices of an obviously larger life.
Something that must be noted is that this film is long – going slightly over the two hour mark, to be exact. It is one of the longest films in Davies’ oeuvre so far, but not entirely for good reason. Although I’m not the most familiar with this director’s other works, I’m well-aware that he favours long, slow-moving, atmospheric scenes, and Benediction is filled with them. It almost reminded me of how it felt watching certain Japanese films, given that Japanese cinema as a whole has a very different interpretation of pacing and time. Several scenes here are entirely composed of quiet – characters will be together, but hardly say a word to one another – or otherwise feature heavy lingering moments of silence and long pauses between conversations. How well these scenes worked for me, though, was a bit of mixed bag: Most use their length and quietness to stunning emotional effect, such as when Sassoon says goodbye to Wilfred Owen for the final time, but others drag on to the point where it becomes a little uncomfortable, and I was left wondering when they were going to just get on with it already. Point is, I can very easily see someone less patient being bored to tears by this film, and I honestly do think it didn’t have to be over two hours long to get the point across. However, it is my belief the majority of Benediction’s quieter moments do work well for the most part.
On the flip side, though, speaking from a purely visual standpoint, these scenes – yes, even those one may consider long and tedious – are gorgeous to look at. You can tell that a lot of work went into recreating the look of each respective time period, from the set design to the costumes to even the music. I do enjoy a good period drama, and the film’s cinematography – understated, but always pleasant – added to its beauty. Less impressive is the various attempts to splice in historical grainy footage alongside the otherwise high-quality film footage; I understand what Davies was probably trying to do, but his attempts at juxtaposing the two kinda took me out of the movie in the brief moments that they occur.
To get onto something a little nitpick-y before I get into what I disliked the most, it was honestly shocking to me that Robert Graves – a fellow poet that Sassoon ended up having a falling-out with later in life that led to neither of the two reconciling properly – was completely omitted from the film. As small of a ‘complaint’ as this is, as someone who has an interest in this sort of stuff, it really does feel like something is missing at points. However, given that Graves isn’t even name-dropped, I’d wager a guess that this was a case of his estate not allowing Davies to use his name or image for whatever reason; nonetheless, that explanation doesn’t make much sense because a film about Graves, The Laureate, was also released earlier that same year. Did his estate allow the use of his image for one film but not the other? Was Graves even planned to make an appearance in Benediction at all? This is just me speculating, and chances are that viewers who don’t know about WWI war poets won’t even notice or care, but it’s still a rather odd exclusion.
If there’s one aspect of the movie that definitely overstayed its welcome, I think it would have to be the latter half of its middle section, wherein Sassoon has multiple failed love affairs with other men. To be clear, my issue isn’t that these affairs don’t work out. At first, these scenes did deliver on their emotional impact, but they gradually just got more tiring to me as they went along – there’s only so many times I can watch our protagonist be let down by a cruel romantic partner until I start thinking that maybe the idea is being belaboured a bit much. At a certain point , I’d been staring at so many spiteful brown-haired men that they almost started to bleed together. This was in stark contrast to earlier scenes depicting the brief but loving relationship between Sassoon and Wilfred Owens, which were paced perfectly. It is in these moments that I think the addition of Graves to the story was most certainly needed, as I would’ve found it more enjoyable if one of Sassoon’s affair partners was removed and replaced with someone with more of a connection to him, someone who could still contribute to the midsection’s whole theme of damaged relationships and loss without necessarily being romantically involved with the protagonist.
In conclusion, I did thoroughly enjoy this Benediction, though I didn’t necessarily love every part of it. In fact, I have a feeling that the more I let it sit and marinate in my mind, the more I’ll like it as time goes on. Although I’m well aware that it isn’t exactly possible to recommend it to a general audience – I’d say one would have to be a fan of its topics or a fan of this director to enjoy it fully – but even if you’re simply looking for something that’s a little different, or wanting to watch a filmmaker with a unique voice, I urge you to give this a try.
Final score: 7.5 / 10
The Art Archive 