Rent The War Below (2021)
3.2 of 5 from 108 ratings
1h 33min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- In July 1916 the Battle of the Somme began. Within hours 20,000 British soldiers had lost their lives. After months of stalemate, an audacious plan was formed. To dig a tunnel under No Man's Land and plant a bomb bigger than the world had ever seen under the German trenches. But the fate of millions lay not in the hands of professional soldiers, but a small rag tag of civilian miners for only they have the skills to complete the mission. Under the disapproving eye of General Haig (Douglas Reith), they have but one chance and four weeks until zero hour. History is waiting.
- Actors:
- Sam Hazeldine, Tom Goodman-Hill, Kris Hitchen, Elliot James Langridge, Sam Clemmett, Joseph Steyne, Sonny Ashbourne Serkis, Anna Maguire, Andrew Scarborough, Douglas Reith, Jake Wheeldon, Stuart Adams, Philip Correia, Benjamin Farry, Aaron Hartley, Samuel James, Mark Kitto, Alexa Morden, Paul Morris, Richard Nauyokas
- Directors:
- J.P. Watts
- Producers:
- Luis Guerrero, William Knochel, Chris Lemos
- Writers:
- J.P. Watts, Thomas Woods
- Aka:
- Betrayed / Clay Kickers
- Studio:
- Vertigo
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Drama
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Reviews (3) of The War Below
Unambitious but engaging - The War Below review by Alphaville
Totally predictable WW! drama, with noble working-class squaddies and idiot pompous generals. Our heroes have to dig a tunnel under the German lines. Will there be a tunnel collapse? What do you think? Dialogue is filled out with banter and voiceovers of letters written home. For most of its length it’s surprisingly unexciting for a war film, but it does break out towards the end. The awful trailer gives the whole game away anyway.
Not that it’s a bad film. It’s based on a true story and is well-meaning, well-mounted, well acted and sedately directed. It comes across as a high-end Sunday evening TV drama.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Worthy but rather lacking in Drama - The War Below review by CD
In the grim context of WW1 and the Somme battlefront, there is relatively little action and excitement in this film. The lead actors are strong but the story follows a rather predictable course, with nothing that really gives the audience any real insight into the tunnelling, and how it was done.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
So-so, but Watchable, Pedestrian, Plodding WWI Drama - The War Below review by PV
There is nothing particularly wrong with this film; nothing particularly memorable either. It features the famous massive explosion of WWI, where British diggers tunnelled under German lines and set explosives which, when detonated, killed 10,000 Germans, many of them vaporized, and a blast that could even be heard in London. The accidental Canadian Halifax ship explosion in 1917 was the biggest blast of WWI and maybe in history, not including nuclear bombs.
The information given at the end before the credits is worth waiting for. What precedes this can feel a bit stretched and drawn out, with romance and tragedy of the loss pof young life added into the build-up to the climax.
There are many great films about the First World War - ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT from 1930 (best version); JOURNEY'S END. Others. Probably worth watching a documentary about this too before watching this drama, or after.
The novel Birdsong features these tunnel diggers from the First World War too.
3 stars. It does what it says on the high explosives tin.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.