Private Peaceful
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers who struggle through a harsh childhood and adolescence in rural Devon, England fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
26 December 1961, Corrinshego, Newry, Northern Ireland, UK
6 November 1997, London, England, UK
31 July 1947, Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England, UK
February 3, 1988 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK
1957, London, England, UK
October 27, 2014
Trench warfare as the backdrop for a tawdry love triangle about as incestuous as it gets.
October 31, 2012
The ending is dynamite and will shock children just as much as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
October 30, 2014
A long, long, trail a-winding, to be sure. But fans of PBS, history and a certain kind of old-fashioned moviemaking may fall in.
October 12, 2012
The filmmakers tell this World War I story beautifully, but they never quite bring it to life as a proper movie. By taking a gently simplistic approach, it never feels like anything new as it deals with the usual topics of battlefield camaraderie.
October 11, 2012
O'Connor shows his old-school expertise in the charming country childhood sequences, where the film feels most individual and alive.
October 30, 2014
A World War I fable that's as stiff as an Eton collar and as plodding as a draft horse.
October 29, 2014
By modestly embracing its inherent minimalism and finding the emotions underlying even the most schematic of scenarios, the film taps into something unmistakably human.
October 28, 2014
O'Connor captures all the beauty of these rural childhoods without skimping on the harsh realities of 20th-century feudalism.
July 18, 2013
A cliché-ridden, thoroughly forgettable, at times just plain dull affair, with broad characterisations and musty plot turns that would seem embarrassing even on TV - where it ideally belongs.
October 31, 2014
Melancholy runs deep in "Private Peaceful," a richly appointed British period piece about fraternal loyalty adapted from the book of the same name by "War Horse" author Michael Morpurgo.
October 13, 2012
It's perhaps more TV than cinema, but O'Connor directs with a firm hand, and children will learn valuable lessons from it.
