Elitist20

A moving, confronting drama. Like the novel, it jumps about in time, but this mirrors the central character, haunted in old age by the memory of his time on 'the line'. The appalling conditions are not exaggerated, and are shocking to watch. While the Japanese guards behave brutally, they are not one-dimensional - we see things from their point of view as well. While Dorrigo Evans does share some characteristics with Weary Dunlop - performing surgical miracles in camp, reaching out to his former enemies later in life, but also having a peacetime reputation for 'overoperating' - Richard Flanagan also drew on the experiences of his own father. That generation of men was encouraged not to 'dwell' on their experiences and 'just get on with it', but their family members (particularly their wives) could tell you what that involved. Jacob Elordi is perhaps too young for the WW2 Dorrigo, but Ciaran Hinds is perfect for him in the 80s. The music, haunting and eerie, works brilliantly. The sex scenes are, in my view, justified and not gratuitous, a key part of the life of a haunted, profoundly conflicted man. The one problem for me was the cinematography: scenes either in darkness, twilight, or very bleak daylight, making it hard to make out what's happening and who's who. One can pick holes in historical inaccuracies (no-one in Australia said 'do the math' in the 40s) but on the whole it succeeds in putting us in a time and place connected to ours, yet vastly different. In short, ignore a certain commenter whose one-star rating got the most likes.