The Trench is a 1999 film directed by William Boyd that portrays a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the last 48 hours. The film paints a picture of the soldiers’ emotional experience in the confines of the trenches; an experience running the gamut from boredom to fear, panic to restlessness. Billy MacFarlane , 17, along with his older brother, Eddie , has volunteered for service. The whole squad – basically boys dressed as men – depend on the war-hardened Sergeant Winter and the scholarly Lieutenant Hart for their survival. When word... arrives that the squad will join the first wave of attacks, they do not yet know they will be present when the British Army loses the greatest number of soldiers on any given day in history.
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| Release date: | 1999 |
| Directed by: | William Boyd |
| Runtime: | 98 Minutes |
| Editor: | Jim Clark |