Surrey author, screenwriter and war veteran Robert Cedric Sherriff (1896-1975) is famous throughout the world for Journey’s End (1930), the greatest play to explore the experience of serving in the trenches of the Western Front. Robert Sherriff spent many gruelling months on the Western Front with the 9th Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment until he was wounded at Passchendaele in August 1917 and was sent back to England for treatment.
Journey's End (2017 film) is a powerful and vivid British film adaptation of the play, written by Simon Reade and directed by Saul Dibb. The new film is set in March 1918 as C-Company arrives to take its turn in the front-lines trenches of Northern France, led by a war-weary Captain Stanhope. Told that a German offensive is imminently approaching Captain Stanhope drowns his fears in whisky whilst the officers and their cook attempt to distract themselves in their dugout with talk of food and life before war. They are joined by Jimmy Raleigh, a young new officer fresh out of training, excited about his first real posting, and a chance to serve under Captain Stanhope, his former school house monitor and the object of his sister’s affections. What he doesn’t realise is that Stanhope’s Company is directly in the path of the impending and massive German attack. Raleigh’s naivety serves as a stark contrast to the other men’s impending fear as the tension rises and the attack draws ever closer.
Released in UK cinemas from: February 2nd 2018
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CAST
Stanhope Sam Claflin (My Cousin Rachel, The Hunger Games)
Osborne Paul Bettany (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Master & Commander, A Beautiful Mind),
Raleigh Asa Butterfield (Hugo, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children)
Mason Toby Jones (Dad’s Army, Harry Potter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Hibbert Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd, The Boat that Rocked)
Trotter Stephen Graham (Pirates of the Caribbean, This is England)
Colonel Robert Glenister
General Rupert Wickham
Hardy Miles Jupp
Sargent Major Andy Gathergood
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