BEFORE DAWN

Australia, 2024, 99 minutes, Colour.

Levi Miller, Travis Jeffery, Ed Oxenbould, Myles Pollard, Stephen Peacocke, Oscar Millar, Pat Kelly Belinda Hammond.

Directed by Jordon Prince-Wright.

The past is often powerfully present to us. And we can understand ourselves better in the light of the past.

This is a presupposition for the continued cinema visits back to Australia’s War past. And the Anzac motto, “Lest we Forget”.

Young director, Jordon Prince-Wright, has dedicated this film to his granddad. While he is re-visiting stories often told – and we remember Gallipoli, The Lighthorsemen, Beneath Hill 60 – this is a very personal telling of Australian involvement in World War I, in France, on the Somme, the Hindenburg line and other key battle fronts from 1916 to 1918 and the Armistice.

The tone of the film is set before the credits, the darkness of the trenches, dirt, the rats, the atmosphere in which the men had to spend years. Then to a farm in Western Australia, Jim Collins (Levi Miller) working with the sheep for his father, mates with the coworkers. They are intending to go to war, eager to sign up. They want Jim with him. His father and mother don’t want him to go, the threat to managing the wrecked farm. Jim is caught but decides to go. It is 1916.

As with so many striking war films, it is amazing to see how the battlefield is reconstructed, detailed presentation of the trenches, the glimpses of the battlefields and the soldiers going over the top, attacking German posts, the men being shot down, the hand to hand combat all convincing here.

Jim is young, he has to come of age in the trenches, lose close friends, be blamed when friends are killed, personality clashes and how to deal with them, the role of the authorities, some condescending, some altering their reports out of care for the young soldiers, and the proverbial sergeant who bonds with his men, is not only a leader but something of a father-figure, sharing the crises and the action with them.

Jim is a good young man, conscientious, and shows some heroism, especially going over the top to rescue an injured man and drag him to safety. And the film indicates that this is the kind of experience that the young soldiers brought back home, if they survived, a spirit of mateship in a war that they did not necessarily understand, that was confined for years in a limited area of France. The Anzac spirit.

This is an early feature film from the director. Given the aplomb with which this film was made, it will be interesting to see his future films.

1. Australian perspective on World War I, the fighting in France, 1916 -18, the trenches?
2. Perspective on World War I, after more than 100 years? Recapturing the life of the young men at home, on the farms, their enthusiasm, and listing, finding themselves in France, the Somme, the Hindenburg Line, the bonding, the fighting, the mud and rats of the trench, serving up the food, the rain, time passing, the wounds and injuries, the months, the years?
3. The West Australian settings? The farm, the sheep, the dam, the home? The hard work of the parents? Making ends meet? The tough father? Hard on his son? The young daughter? The mother, the reporting dirty boots in the house? Jim, his age, the work, the friendship with the group, Don, Thomas Nickles, memories of the past? The newcomers, Archie? Jim and his decision to go with the group, the hesitations, the final words from his father, the desperation for the farm, something of his father’s blessing? The sad news received when his father died?
4. The picture of the warfare, the detail of life in the trenches and its hardships, the German enemy, seen and unseen? The bombardments? Going over the top? The men being killed and the attacks? The men to be rescued and brought back to the trenches? The dilemmas about leaving injured men? The dangers, the heroism?
5. The picture of the authorities, their visiting the trenches, some sense of superiority, issuing orders? The interviews with the officer?
6. The sergeant, his personality, authority, with the men, companionship, understanding, making judgements for the situations, following orders?
7. The years and their effect on Jim, initially young and naive, collaborations, Don, the friendship from the past, his going over the top, his death? Nickles blaming Jim? The fights, cantankerous? Eventually Nickles being wounded, Jim and his support? Their surviving?
8. The detailing of the young men, their personalities, friendships, dangers, deaths? Archie, young, fears? Winding?
9. The passing of time, the months, then the years? The effect of such a long warfare, the life in the trenches? The confrontation with the Germans, attacking the posts, grenades, hand-to-hand combat, the killing of the Germans? The effect on the men?
10. 1918, Armistice Day, the silence after the guns, the checking of the time, the relief, the joy, the comradeship?
11. Jim, his return home, his sister, his mother, his father’s grave?
12. The director dedicating the film to his grandfather? A reminder of the impact of the men going to war, the many deaths, the legacy of the war on Australian society?