Benediction

2021

137 mins

Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) and Jack Lowden (Dunkirk) play Siegfried Sassoon throughout the ages in this dramatised biography from Terence... More

Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) and Jack Lowden (Dunkirk) play Siegfried Sassoon throughout the ages in this dramatised biography from Terence Davies (A Quiet Passion), capturing the poet's experiences with the First World War and how his devestating words ignited public discourse.

Sassoon (1886-1967), who was decorated for bravery on the Western Front, is best remembered for his angry and compassionate poems about the First World War, which brought him public and critical acclaim. Avoiding the sentimentality and jingoism of many war poets, Sassoon wrote of the horror and brutality of trench warfare and contemptuously satirised generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompetence and blind support of the war.

Less

Where to watch Benediction

Benediction is available to stream in New Zealand now on... More YouTube and Google TV and Apple TV Store and Academy On Demand and AroVision and Prime Video Store.

There is no screening information for this title.

Benediction | Ratings & Reviews

92_%153 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
65_%17 reviews
Audience score rating

"It's an elegant piece of filmmaking, if a little too decorous at times."

—

Screen Daily

"Painfully tender..."

—

IndieWire

"It does eventually wind its way to a profoundly affecting conclusion."

"Piercingly sad..."

"The dialogue is quietly scathing, and the production values are sumptuous. But Davies seems most interested in Sassoon as a symbol of hemmed-in Englishness."

"Rhapsodic..."

"This is Davies’ second portrait of a sequestered poet... and his third film set against the backdrop of war... It might be the saddest and most tragic of the lot."

—