TheLittleSongbird Based on Michael Morpurgo's book, 'Private Peaceful' has garnered inevitable comparisons with Spielberg's 'War Horse' (to me a superior film, which is probably not going to be a popular opinion). On its own merits, it's a decent but not great film that does a lot right but somewhat too vanilla.Starting with the strengths of 'Private Peaceful', while not lavish it's very nicely shot in its own low-key way and even more expertly done is the contrast of the rustic charm of the early life scenes with the harrowing griminess of the war scenes. Rachel Portman's score is lushly orchestrated and understated without being over-sentimentalised.'Private Peaceful' may have a lot of familiar elements, but the relationship with their father, the sibling love rivalry and feuding with their sergeant are done competently enough, if very familiar elements done to much stronger effect elsewhere. The story is compelling and moving enough, everything about the film is well-intended and the direction is solid.The acting is what comes off best, or at least most of it. George MacKay and Jack O'Connell are very good as the brothers with a very natural bond between them, and they are well matched by a charming Alexandra Roach as well as tortured and gruff John Lynch, affecting Maxine Peake and blustering Richard Griffiths.Not everything comes off well. The dialogue can be stilted and awkward in flow, with too much signposting and melodrama in the early scenes. The child performances also don't come off naturally and are actually pretty amateurish, particularly for young Charlie.A little too much of the film is cliché ridden and sadly this would not have mattered if it wasn't so vanilla, meaning it's all there but with not much spark. Lastly, the ending is far too abrupt and too much of a head-scratcher.In summary, well done but bland. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Prismark10 Private Peaceful is adapted from the book by Michael Morpurgo. It is a low budget film that features the final screen performance of Richard Griffiths who plays the pompous retired headmaster, the Colonel.Told in flashbacks, the story is about two Devonshire brothers Tommo (George McKay) and Charlie (Jack O'Connell) who before the war was close and getting into scrapes such as upsetting the Colonel and fall for the young girl in the village Molly (Alexandra Roach.) It is Charlie who marries her. Now Charlie is facing the firing squad for alleged cowardice.Until their father died in a tragic accident, the family had a relatively good life. Their father was a gamekeeper and forester employed by wealthy landowners.Both join up to fight the Great War even though Tommo was too young. Charlie tries to take care of Tommo and concerned about Molly who became pregnant before they set of for Flanders. Charlie also crosses swords with a sadistic sergeant who proves his undoing as Charlie disobeys orders and stays with injured Tommo in no man's land that leads him to be court martialled despite both men surviving gas attacks and deaths of their fellow soldiers while in the trenches.Both actors play their roles with sensitivity and despite the low key nature of the film there is an anti war message in its core. The film shows an England in the flux of change which the war accelerates albeit still too slowly for some.General Haig signs Charlie death warrant while paying billiards in his country estate. No thought to delve deeper as to what actually happened. It is left to history to judge Haig.

Stephen O Connell The Movie is a brilliant capturing of the true problems and hardship in the times of World War 1, it captures the brilliant realism of the war and followed the life of a young man and his brother who befriend this girl who they both are great friends with, Tommo loves this girl very much, only for his brother Charlie to have captured her heart more.This is a sad story and truly shows the great hardship that families had to with-stand during world war 1, Over all this is a great Movie and it should be certain you watch this.This is very well portrayed from the novel- version and follows a struggling family from England during World War 1 in a small town in Iddlesbreigh who struggle with a elderly brother who has special-needs and has a fatal accident, when there father is killed, when a tree crushes him.It's very sad a does show you the true realism of World War 1

grayman175 A terrible portrayal of a really good book. The films acting and general scene work was awful,any viewer who knows a tiny little bit about world war one Will watch this and know that they didn't put any care into the costumes and special effects. Overall this film is dog poo when put next to morpurgo's war horse film. Greatly Disappointed! This film really annoyed me as I was waiting for a really well made film (like the war horse) but they showed me a cast who's accents are terrible and General acting skills of a four-year old! At one point in the film sergeant Hanley makes Tommo run around and Charlie squares up to him,this annoys me as it would never of happened.Charlie got given field punishment number one and was tied to a gun wheel in clean uniform, this is wrong as the gun carriage would have been pulled around. This film was tripe!