“Testament of Youth” (directed by James Kent), based on the
autobiographical memoir of British pacifist Vera Britain (Alicia Viklander)
during World War I. The film certainly
covers the moral area of shared sacrifice, for goals set by politicians and not
always valid.
The film opens in the summer of 1914 just after news of the
assassination in the Balkans has reached England. Vera wants her own life as an
educated woman. Her father (Dominic
West) objects to her writing and gives her a piano, which she rejects. He scolds, how will you ever find a husband.
She pretends to throw her writing out, but gathers it up.
She takes entrance exams for Oxford, and despite writing a
critical essay in German rather than Latin, gets in. But soon she has fallen in
love anyway, while the World War I patriotism (and eventual draft) calls her fiancé
and brother to battle.
She decides to volunteer as a nurse, and is rebuffed again on
many fronts. The headmistress thinks
that some people need to stay home and reflect. That sounds like student
deferments! Once on the lines, she gets the usual class warfare lectures from
her supervisory nurses.
And then the war itself gets graphic, will all the wounds,
gangrene and amputations. She loses her fiancé, brother and another friend. At
one point, the fiancé says he has to go to war because if he doesn’t, others
have to. That’s the “somebody’s gotta do
it” argument that drove the military draft here during the Vietnam era.
Official site is here (Sony Pictures Classics).
I saw the film before a fair audience at the AMC Shirlington
Monday night.
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