Release Date (UK DVD) – 25th July 2011
Certificate (UK) – 15
Country – UK
Director – Paul Greengrass
Runtime – 88 mins
Starring – David Thewlis, Tom Bell, Rita Tushingham, Rudi Davies, Christopher Fulford, Ewan Stewart
Based on a true story, 1988 film Resurrected is the tale of one soldier’s ‘return from the dead’, and is the directorial debut of Hollywood favourite, Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone). The film follows Kevin Deakin (Thewlis) a soldier fighting in the Falklands conflict, found alive but with terrible amnesia weeks after having been declared dead. He returns to normal life and re-joins his regiment, but insinuations of desertion emerge in the press fuelling a campaign of hatred and bullying that spirals out of control.
Resurrected really is a very powerful, very moving example of film-making at its best. It’s gritty, it’s hard-hitting and will leave most film-lovers coming away with a powerful sense of injustice at the cruel institutionalised bullying Deakin has to endure. David Thewlis plays the lead role superbly, and gives the audience a real sense of the confusion, the isolation, and the conflicting emotions the troubled soldier has to contend with.
Naturally for a film shot in 1988, Resurrected is very much ‘of its time’, but the message is still just as powerful now as it was back then. The film offers up a scathing criticism of both institutionalised bullying and the way we treat our soldiers. It is a film that offers insight into how war changes people, but also how easily moods change; how we can both deify and lionise our heroes at the drop of a hat and how the public mood can be so quick to change. It is a film just as much about human nature, and just how fickle as a species we can be, as it is about war and the devastating consequences it can bring.
If there is a failing to be found in Resurrected it is perhaps in the fact it doesn’t offer any solutions to the problems it so brutally highlights. As I have alluded to already, the film is extremely hard-hitting and certainly not an ‘enjoyable’ piece in the traditional sense of the word. Most viewers will come away feeling almost distinctly affected by the film’s message, and most likely feeling quite disgusted at the film’s brutal and hard-hitting content, but that is all. There is no counter-balance to the intensity of the film-watching experience — there is no pause in the isolation or in the suffering Deakin has to endure — and to this reviewer at least, that makes the thought of watching Resurrected repeatedly something of a daunting prospect.
Fans of Resurrected and Paul Greengrass’s work will be pleased to find that the DVD features exclusive new interviews with both Greengrass and actor David Thewlis. Both of these interviews prove to be nice additions to the DVD content, though they are unfortunately the only extras supplied on the disk.
While Resurrected is undoubtedly excellent, it is also at the same time, a very ‘difficult’ film. It is a hard-hitting, often brutal experience, and there is little room to breathe amidst the intensity of the film-watching experience. As a debut feature, Resurrected really does show the huge potential Greengrass had even back in his earliest years. If you can stomach the power of Greengrass’s story-telling, then Resurrected really is worth a watch.
Resurrected is out on DVD on July 25th – pre-order it here
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