Regeneration (1997 film)
Encyclopedia
Regeneration is a 1997 film adaptation of the novel of the same name
by Pat Barker
. The film is directed by Gillies MacKinnon
. It was released as Behind the Lines in the USA in 1998.
's open letter dated July 1917, protesting the conduct and insincerities of the First World War. The letter has been published in The Times
and has received much attention in England. With the string-pulling and guidance of Robert Graves
, a fellow poet and friend of Sassoon, the army agrees to send Sassoon to Craiglockhart War Hospital
, a psychiatric facility in Scotland, rather than court-martialling him. At Craiglockhart, Sassoon meets Dr. William Rivers
, a former anthropologist turned psychiatrist who encourages his patients to express their war memories so that they can “heal their nerves”. There is no clear main character in this film, but there is more focus on several of the characters; notably, Billy Prior, Siegfried Sassoon and Dr. Rivers himself. A very important secondary character, Wilfred Owen
, is linked to Sassoon’s storyline.
Prior, at first an unsympathetic character, presents a challenge to Dr Rivers, who gradually discovers that the loss of Prior's power of speech is the result of a traumatic experience in the trenches. Prior spends his spare time going into the town in search of sex, eventually beginning a relationship with Sarah, a munitions worker. He too has anti-war sentiments and refers to incidents that have caused him to distrust the military authorities.
Sassoon's letter is read in the House of Commons and is dismissed, as he is considered mentally unstable. He begins to become friends with another patient in the hospital, Wilfred Owen. Owen aspires to be a poet as well and he greatly respects Sassoon's work; Sassoon agrees to help Owen with his poetry. Meanwhile, Doctor Rivers has taken a leave of absence from the hospital and visits Dr. Lewis Yealland
’s practice in London. Dr. Yealland treats his patients not like traumatised human beings, but like mere machines, which need to be repaired as quickly as possible. Rivers sits in on one of Yealland’s electroshock therapy sessions on a private named Callan, who, like Prior, has lost his speech. Rivers is at first repulsed by the brutality of the treatment, but back in Craiglockhart, he starts to question his own method of therapy, since his patients take long to recover and sometimes actually suffer under the expression of their traumas.
Sassoon has also come to a very important decision. Although he still disagrees with the brutality and suffering of the war, he decides to return to France in order to care for his men. Both Graves and Rivers are pleased with this decision. During the Review Board’s evaluation of Sassoon, Rivers is torn apart by conflicting feelings. On the one hand, Sassoon’s views have not changed in the slightest, and as such he still fulfills the qualification of mental illness that landed him at Craiglockhart. On the other hand Sassoon did not truly qualify as mentally ill in the first place, and he strongly wishes to return to the war. When his opinion is needed, he qualifies Sassoon as being fit, and thereby qualified to return to war.
In the meantime, Prior escapes a return to the Front when he goes before the medical board and is found to have a weak chest. The final scenes show Wilfred Owen's death in France and Rivers' despair on hearing of it.
awards, Regeneration was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film
but lost to Gary Oldman
's Nil by Mouth
. During the 1998 British Independent Film Awards
, Jonathan Pryce
was nominated for Best Performance by a British Actor in an Independent Film, Gillies MacKinnon
was also nominated in the Best British Director of an Independent Film category. Because the film was a British-Canadian co-production, Regeneration received various nominations at the Canadian Genie Awards, including Best Achievement in Direction (Gillies MacKinnon), Best Motion Picture (Allan Scott
, Peter Simpson), Best Music Score (Mychael Danna
), Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Jonathan Pryce) and Best Screenplay (Allan Scott).
Regeneration (novel)
For the 1997 film adaptation of the novel see Regeneration .Regeneration is a prize-winning novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication...
by Pat Barker
Pat Barker
Pat Barker CBE, FRSL is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.-Personal life:...
. The film is directed by Gillies MacKinnon
Gillies MacKinnon
Gillies MacKinnon is a Scottish film director and writer.His film credits include Hideous Kinky, Small Faces and Regeneration.-Personal life:...
. It was released as Behind the Lines in the USA in 1998.
Plot
The film starts by referencing Siegfried SassoonSiegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
's open letter dated July 1917, protesting the conduct and insincerities of the First World War. The letter has been published in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and has received much attention in England. With the string-pulling and guidance of Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
, a fellow poet and friend of Sassoon, the army agrees to send Sassoon to Craiglockhart War Hospital
Craiglockhart Hydropathic
Craiglockhart Hydropathic, now a part of Edinburgh Napier University and known as Craiglockhart Campus, is a building with surrounding grounds in Craiglockhart, Edinburgh, Scotland.-Origins:...
, a psychiatric facility in Scotland, rather than court-martialling him. At Craiglockhart, Sassoon meets Dr. William Rivers
W. H. R. Rivers
William Halse Rivers Rivers, FRCP, FRS, was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work with shell-shocked soldiers during World War I. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon...
, a former anthropologist turned psychiatrist who encourages his patients to express their war memories so that they can “heal their nerves”. There is no clear main character in this film, but there is more focus on several of the characters; notably, Billy Prior, Siegfried Sassoon and Dr. Rivers himself. A very important secondary character, Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
, is linked to Sassoon’s storyline.
Prior, at first an unsympathetic character, presents a challenge to Dr Rivers, who gradually discovers that the loss of Prior's power of speech is the result of a traumatic experience in the trenches. Prior spends his spare time going into the town in search of sex, eventually beginning a relationship with Sarah, a munitions worker. He too has anti-war sentiments and refers to incidents that have caused him to distrust the military authorities.
Sassoon's letter is read in the House of Commons and is dismissed, as he is considered mentally unstable. He begins to become friends with another patient in the hospital, Wilfred Owen. Owen aspires to be a poet as well and he greatly respects Sassoon's work; Sassoon agrees to help Owen with his poetry. Meanwhile, Doctor Rivers has taken a leave of absence from the hospital and visits Dr. Lewis Yealland
Lewis Yealland
Lewis Ralph Yealland was a Canadian-born therapist who came to Britain to practise medicine during the First World War and was at the forefront of experimental shock techniques to treat shell shock.-War work:...
’s practice in London. Dr. Yealland treats his patients not like traumatised human beings, but like mere machines, which need to be repaired as quickly as possible. Rivers sits in on one of Yealland’s electroshock therapy sessions on a private named Callan, who, like Prior, has lost his speech. Rivers is at first repulsed by the brutality of the treatment, but back in Craiglockhart, he starts to question his own method of therapy, since his patients take long to recover and sometimes actually suffer under the expression of their traumas.
Sassoon has also come to a very important decision. Although he still disagrees with the brutality and suffering of the war, he decides to return to France in order to care for his men. Both Graves and Rivers are pleased with this decision. During the Review Board’s evaluation of Sassoon, Rivers is torn apart by conflicting feelings. On the one hand, Sassoon’s views have not changed in the slightest, and as such he still fulfills the qualification of mental illness that landed him at Craiglockhart. On the other hand Sassoon did not truly qualify as mentally ill in the first place, and he strongly wishes to return to the war. When his opinion is needed, he qualifies Sassoon as being fit, and thereby qualified to return to war.
In the meantime, Prior escapes a return to the Front when he goes before the medical board and is found to have a weak chest. The final scenes show Wilfred Owen's death in France and Rivers' despair on hearing of it.
Awards
During the 1997 BAFTABritish Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
awards, Regeneration was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film
BAFTA Award for Best Film
This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
but lost to Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
's Nil by Mouth
Nil by Mouth (film)
Nil by Mouth is a 1997 British drama film portraying a family of characters living in South East London. It was Gary Oldman's debut as a writer and director; the film was produced by Douglas Urbanski and Luc Besson. It stars Ray Winstone as Raymond, the abusive husband of Valerie...
. During the 1998 British Independent Film Awards
British Independent Film Awards
The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British...
, Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
was nominated for Best Performance by a British Actor in an Independent Film, Gillies MacKinnon
Gillies MacKinnon
Gillies MacKinnon is a Scottish film director and writer.His film credits include Hideous Kinky, Small Faces and Regeneration.-Personal life:...
was also nominated in the Best British Director of an Independent Film category. Because the film was a British-Canadian co-production, Regeneration received various nominations at the Canadian Genie Awards, including Best Achievement in Direction (Gillies MacKinnon), Best Motion Picture (Allan Scott
Allan Scott (Scottish screenwriter)
Allan Scott, the alias of Allan Shiach, is a Scottish screenwriter and producer, nominated for BAFTA's Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film and a Genie Award for his 1997 film Regeneration...
, Peter Simpson), Best Music Score (Mychael Danna
Mychael Danna
Mychael Danna is a Canadian film composer.-Life and career:Mychael Danna is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won...
), Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Jonathan Pryce) and Best Screenplay (Allan Scott).