My Review- Benediction
My Score 7/10
I always find something to enjoy in a Terence Davies film but often come away thinking that his screenplays and Direction tell us more about Terence Davies than they do about the subject of his story .
The subject in this movie is Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE who was born on September 8th 1886 . He was a famous English war poet, writer, and soldier who was decorated for bravery on the Western Front and became one of the leading poets of the First World War.
I was surprised to read that Terence Davies the writer and Director of Benediction has only made feature 24 films . Three of those are biographical and known as the Terence Davies Trilogy Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and the collage film Of Time and the City (2008) a nostalgic look at his birthplace city Liverpool U. K. In 2000 Terence Davies Directed and wrote the screenplay for his movie adaptation of The House of Mirth the 1905 novel by American author Edith Wharton.
After seeing Benediction Terence David's most recent movie I looked back on my previous review of his last feature film "A Quiet Passion " (2016) about the life of Emily Dickinson the famous American poet . I was interested to see that I felt similarly about that movie as do about "Benediction."
a quote from my review- of A Quiet Passion ."
A bleak film written and directed by Terence Davies I thought though at times it's very beautiful that it would have been more balanced if he had shown less suffering and more of the joyful influences that inspired her poetry . I doubt her life was all despair and angst, perhaps it says more about Terence Davies than Emily Dickinson.
After seeing Benediction I read that Terence Davies has said
I don't like being gay. It has ruined my life. I am celibate, although I think I would have been celibate even if I was straight because I'm not good-looking; why would anyone be interested in me? And nobody has been. Work was my substitute.
I think I understand all his films a little better after reading that as they all have a poetic undertone of sadness and regret while still at the same time especially in Benediction display the gift of panache and sophistication that many older Gay men ,especially in the film and television industry possess .
Benediction traces the life of the famous English poet Siegfried Sassoon CBE who was a brave and decorated First World War hero who won the Military Cross then left the Army and in 1917 .
Sassoon wrote his "Soldiers Declaration."in which he described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the pretensions of those responsible in his view that promoted a jingoistic-fuelled war.
This of course outraged the British Parliament and the Army Chiefs and resulted in Siegfried Sassoon being sent to a War Hospital in Edinburgh where he was treated for shell shock.
Jack Lowdon a Scottish actor who was so good in Dunkirk as an RAF fighter pilot is very impressive as the young and charming Siegfried Sassoon .
Siegfried has a number of affairs with male lovers including the famous and handsome actor composer Ivor Novello and later a very interesting affair with German Prince Philipp of Hesse which oddly is not mentioned in this story?
I wondered why after reading more about Siegfried's affairs that stated the two men exchanged love letters after meeting in Rome in 1922. The affair ended apparently due to Prince Phillipp of Hesse's promiscuity but in Sassoon's diary he wrote "I am the only one of P's regular succession of affairs "
A biographical movie of course can't tell the whole story and we do get a glimpse of the elegant and sophisticated literary and art circles that Siegfried Sassoon and his friends frequented . However I found out much more about Siegfried Sassoon after seeing the movie Benediction than before.
The apparent sadness of Siegfried Sassoon's later life is portrayed by Peter Capaldi as the aged and bitter Siegfried who after marrying Hester Gatty in 1933 ( in reality 2O years his junior) rages at his son and friends this to me seemed at odds with his younger self. Perhaps I'm reading more into it but I wondered if Terence Davies was transferring some of his own regret about his own sexuality into the character by depicting a sad closeted existence?.
The elder Hester is played by the wonderful Gemma Jones and she also is a reflection of a sad marriage .
These facts about Siegfried Sassoon's last years depicted in Terence Davies film are at odds with the truth as Siegfried and Hester separated in 1945 after 12 years of marriage when Siegfried was unable to find a compromise between the "companionship " and solitude he craved.
Their son George Sassoon( 1936 -2006) became a scientist and linguist ,and author and was adored by Siegfried,who wrote several poems addressed to his son.
This information just made me think while this movie is well crafted and interesting that it's missing the true character of its subject Siegfried Sassoon.
