October 26, 2015 -- Before Vera Brittain became one of the leading pacifists of the 20th Century, she persuaded her father to allow her brother to sign up for military duty in World War I. Later, she became a nurse, attending to the wounded from both sides of the World War I conflict. This film tells that part of her story, as well as how her war experience affected her views.

The lovely Alicia Vikander (of “Ex Machina”) plays Vera Brittain in this biographical film, based on Brittain's memoirs of her World War I experiences. This film doesn't portray the actual fighting in the war, but it does show the cost of the war in terms of suffering and loss of life, including a Gone With the Wind-like scene of war casualties strewn out on the ground around hospitals near the battle front. In another scene, Vera is shown scanning page after page in a broad sheet newspaper, looking through a long list of those killed in the war, for names she knows.

The story starts with a love affair between Brittain and a young student, Roland Leighton (played by Kit Harington of “Pompeii”) around the time Brittain was attempting to get admitted to Oxford University, an unusual quest for women of that time. When Vera is finally admitted, and is looking forward to spending time with Roland, war comes between the two lovers. Vera's brother Edward (Taron Egerton of “Kingsmen: The Secret Service”) wants to go to war, but his father (played by Dominic West of “John Carter”) won't let him, because he alone in the family knows about the reality of war.

Edward asks Vera to persuade their father to let him join the military service, because Edward would be ashamed to be left behind when all his friends are entering the service. Vera does persuade her father and soon Edward is in the military service, as is Roland and others from Vera's circle of friends. Vera feels she must do her part in the war effort, so she drops out of Oxford and becomes a nurse, eventually requesting duty near the front lines of battle to be near her brother.

The war drags on with a terrible toll in death and suffering. Vera, her family and friends all suffer tragic losses. Vera witnesses the death and suffering of the soldiers inflicted by bombs, bullets and poison gas. Her view of the war changes. When Roland visits England on a short leave from the war, Vera sees a great change in him. She begs him not to lose his heart, his compassion.

This love story between Vera and Roland is a grand one. Vera's anti-war speech near the end of the film is very moving, too. It comes after the war, during a talk attended by Vera, a discussion about war reparations against Germany. Of course it turns out that the quest for vengeance against Germany in the form of crippling war penalties led to another world war, even worse than the first.

Nothing much has changed since the time Vera lived. The endless cycle of revenge she spoke of is still with us. We still have politicians who seek confrontation and consider diplomacy to be a weakness. We have voters who are convinced they are right. As a result, there are now a series of chronic wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Ukraine. More nations are building nuclear weapons, increasing the chance they will be used by design or accident.

The Bible says “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) but many more monuments have been built to honor soldiers and generals than to honor those who fought for peace, even though their courage and moral authority are of the highest standards. At least this film honors one of them. It rates a B.

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Copyright © 2015 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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