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Clip description
Captain Woodward (Brendan Cowell) asks the young shell-shock victim Private Tiffin (Harrison Gilbertson) to take him from the miners’ underground HQ to the officers’ dugout.
Curator’s notes
After nearly nine minutes in which the viewer has been entirely underground, the emergence into daylight for the first time is startling. This is a strikingly dramatic scene that makes brilliant contrast of the two different types of warfare Woodward and his men experience.
Notice the way the camera switches to Woodward’s point of view for a while, the long tracking shots (where the camera is on the move) and the stirring drama that Cezary Skubiszewski’s orchestral score brings to the scene.
If the claustrophobia of the tunnels is disturbing, this is a very different kind of hell, with enemy shells shrieking overhead like banshees, dirt showering Woodward as one lands nearby, and the ‘walking wounded’ parading past with blood-soaked bandages around their heads. A sudden direct hit on some soldiers only a few yards ahead freezes Woodward and his guide, Tiffin, in shock till the officer pulls himself together and forces the nerve-shattered private to continue.
When they reach the officer’s dugout and dive inside we see instantly that this is a relatively safe, comfortable and privileged world – notice the warm glow of the lighting and the relaxed body language of the officer on the right, played by Anthony Hayes.
