Regeneration (1997 film)

Infobox Film
name = Regeneration


image_size =
caption =
director = Gillies MacKinnon
producer = Allan Scott
Peter R. Simpson
writer = Pat Barker (novel)
Allan Scott (screenplay)
narrator =
starring = Jonathan Pryce
James Wilby
Jonny Lee Miller
Stuart Bunce
Tanya Allen
music = Mychael Danna
cinematography = Glen MacPherson
editing = Pia Di Ciaula
distributor = Artificial Eye (UK)
released = November 21, 1997
runtime = 114 min. (approx.)
country = UK
CAN
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:346478
imdb_id = 0120001

"Regeneration" is a 1997 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Pat Barker. The film is directed by Gillies MacKinnon.

Plot summary

"Regeneration" begins with Siegfried Sassoon's open letter (see further on in this essay), dated July 1917, protesting the conduct and insincerities of the First World War. The letter has been published in The Times and has received much attention in England, as many people are upset over the length and toll of the war thus far. The army is not sure what to do with Sassoon, as his letter clearly threatens to undermine the strength of the war effort at home. With the string-pulling and guidance of Robert Graves, a fellow poet and friend of Sassoon, the Board agrees to send Sassoon to Craiglockhart War Hospital, a mental facility in Scotland, rather than court-martialling him.

Sassoon is at first hesitant to agree to this, since he (rightly) fears that being committed to a mental hospital will undermine his cause, however, convinced by Graves that there is no other option, Sassoon agrees. At Craiglockhart, Sassoon meets with Dr. William Rivers, a former anthropologist turned psychiatrist who encourages his patients to express their war memories so that they can “heal their nerves”. Though Rivers can sympathize with Sassoon’s strong dislike of the horrors of war, he believes it is his duty to encourage him to return to France to fight.

There are many soldiers with various problems and ailments in the hospital. A man named Burns has been unable to eat since a shell threw him into the gas-filled stomach of a German corpse. Anderson, a former war surgeon, is now terrified at the sight of blood, and is worried about resuming his civilian medical practice. Prior, a young, stubborn, and slightly difficult patient, enters the hospital suffering from mutism. Rivers meets with each of them in turn, helping them to recover from their problems. There is not a clear main character in this movie, but there is more focus on several of the characters; notably, Billy Prior, Siegfried Sassoon and Dr. Rivers himself. A very important secondary character, Wilfred Owen, is linked to Sassoon’s storyline.

One stormy night, Burns leaves the hospital, makes a trip far into the countryside, and comes across a tree with dead animals hanging from it. He is at first frightened, but he then starts removing the animals from the branches one by one and arranging them in a circle. Burns lies down in the middle of the circle, naked, and cries. Eventually, Owen finds Burns and returns him to the hospital, but no one finds out about this episode.

Dr. Rivers is personally and emotionally tied to the welfare of his patients. One night, he has a nightmare about old nerve regeneration experiments he used to conduct with his old friend, Henry Head. At Cambridge, the two had severed a nerve in Head's hand with the purpose of charting its gradual regeneration. Rivers still feels guilty about the pain he inflicted on his friend, as well as the pain he inflicts on his patients by forcing them to talk about their war experiences.

Sassoon's letter is read in the House of Commons and is dismissed, as he is considered mentally unstable. Though Sassoon expected this result, he is still saddened and disappointed by the news. Slowly, he begins to become friends with another patient in the hospital, Wilfred Owen. Owen aspires to be a poet as well and he greatly respects Sassoon's work; Sassoon agrees to help Owen with his poetry.

Prior, who has regained his voice, finds his way to a pub in Edinburgh where he meets a young munitions worker named Sarah Lumb. They strike up an acquaintance and agree to see each other again. When Prior returns to the hospital, Rivers tries hypnosis on Prior to see if it enables him to remember the tragic events that led to his breakdown. The hypnosis works, and Prior remembers in vivid detail having to shovel his men's remains after they were killed by a shell. The specific “traumatic” event that triggered his mutism is his discovery of the intact eyeball of a young soldier with whom he had talked just moments before. Prior's memories anger and upset him. The next week, Prior takes Sarah to a seaside town where they see crowds of people walking on the beach. Prior envies and resents the way these people can just escape from the war. A storm comes, and Prior and Sarah make love under the shelter of a thornbush.

Meanwhile, Doctor Rivers has taken a leave of absence from the hospital and visits Dr. Lewis Yealland’s practice in London. Dr. Yealland treats his patients not like traumatised human beings, but like mere machines, which need to be repaired as quickly as possible. Rivers sits in on one of Yealland’s electroshock therapy sessions on a private named Callan. Rivers is at first repulsed by the brutality of the treatment, but back in Craiglockhart, he starts to question his own method of therapy, since his patients take long to recover and sometimes actually suffer under the expression of their traumas.

Back at Craiglockhart, the Review Board has granted Prior permanent home service; he will not have to return to the war. Though this upsets Prior, he sneaks out to visit Sarah and tells her the news. Though they are both skeptical about love, they agree to give their relationship a try. Meanwhile, Sassoon has also come to a very important decision. Although he still disagrees with the brutality and suffering of the war, he decides to return to France in order to care for his men. Both Graves and Rivers are pleased with this decision.

During the Review Board’s evaluation of Sassoon, Rivers is torn apart by conflicting feelings. On the one hand, Sassoon’s views have not changed in the slightest, and as such he still fulfills the qualification of mental illness that landed him at Craiglockhart, however on the other hand Sassoon did not truly qualify as mentally ill in the first place, and he strongly wishes to return to the war. When his opinion is needed, he reluctantly qualifies Sassoon as being fit, and thereby qualified to return to war.

Awards

During the 1997 BAFTA awards, "Regeneration" was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film but lost to Gary Oldman's "Nil by Mouth". During the 1998 British Independent Film Awards, Jonathan Pryce was nominated for Best Performance by a British Actor in an Independent Film, Gillies MacKinnon was also nominated in the Best British Director of an Independent Film category. Because the film was a British-Canadian co-production, "Regeneration" received various nominations at the Canadian Genie Awards, including Best Achievement in Direction (Gillies MacKinnon), Best Motion Picture (Allan Scott, Peter Simpson), Best Music Score (Mychael Danna), Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Jonathan Pryce) and Best Screenplay (Allan Scott).

References

External links

*