I have no idea what The BBC TV movie, 'Birdsong' cost to make, but I'm sure it was a fraction of the cost of the average Hollywood movie. 'Birdsong' is a 3-hour drama, based on a best-selling book of the same name and is about the horrors of the 2nd World War, interspersed with a lingering, tragic love story involving the lead character. There are a number of trench warfare action scenes, and I have to say that the BBC has done incredibly well on what must have been an infinitesimal budget compared to the average Hollywood war movie budget. I am not saying that the BBC war scenes were superior to Hollywood's versions of WW1 warfare, but they more than held their own. This BBC adaptation was, in this reviewer's opinion, a high-class production.The characters are finely drawn and believable and we are comfortable with listening to the French characters speak English, as it is clear that they were all highly educated and the story required that they spoke English for the benefit of their 'English guests'. They even occasionally lapsed into their own tongue, (with appropriate sub-titles), when the occasion demanded it.Sure, Birdsong is a slow moving drama, and may lack some of the 'commercial' impact that a Hollywood movie might provide, but it certainly has its tense, dramatic moments; both in the trenches and in the French châteaus - and boudoirs! Indeed, the hero – or some may say anti-hero – comes back, seemingly from the dead - on no less than two occasions, and surely there was enough blood and guts, loss of life and dramatic moments to satisfy most viewers. It is a love story; a man's love of a woman who doesn't belong to him; and is set against the background of a terrible war; amongst the horrific battlefields of the Somme, Verdun, and elsewhere.

Though I haven't read the book yet and I also had no idea this was split into two TV-movies. It came out as one single very long movie on DVD in Germany, so I watched it like that. It did appeal to me, especially acting, though some choices seemed weird. For a TV movie it is surprising I reckon that there is nudity. For regular TV I guess, but then again, we're way past that already.The structure does seem fitting for a novel and it makes more sense in the book form (or at least seems to). Even without having read it, you can do more in the head of a reader than in a film. Still this seems more than decent enough to stand on its own, especially if the viewer is unaware of its source material.

I just watched "Birdsong" on PBS. Didn't know anything about it other than it had Eddie Redmayne in it. His work in "Savage Grace", "The Good Shepherd", and "Les Miserable" sets him apart from other actors of his generation. As does his work here. He pretty much carries "Birdsong" on his shoulders singlehandedly which saved this fairly flawed film. It is a "made for TV product" but on some levels; acting, art direction, and cinematography, it's Oscar material - and then at others like; screenplay, and... well, really just the screenplay, it's a mess. That being said, the essence of what the movie is trying to convey is more than vaulted into the viewers mind and senses. This three hour "thing" I just watched is more of a performance (Redmayne) than a film. Fortunately that worked because Redmayne's performance is a powerful sensory overload that is moving and overwhelming. He could do the whole film without ever uttering a word and you'd walk away knowing; that war is hell, how it ruins people, how it makes heroes of some and distant memories of others, and that the carnage of war can come in the form of a letter from home as lethally as from a bomb or a bullet. I, personally, believe that Eddie Redmayne is one of the most gifted actors working today. It's in his eyes. Every wonderful, horrible, moment. Stephen, the main character played by Eddie Redmayne, is in France on the front line during WWI. He is a harsh and aloof lieutenant. In one of the opening scenes, however, a soldier is fatally wounded and Stephen holds his hand as he is dying and asks him, "do you have a sweetheart", "what's her name", "hold on", "think of the last thing you said to her and the first thing you'll say when you see her again". He knows he'll never see his sweetheart again but maybe this soldier saw her beautiful face in his mind before he died instead of the hellscape he died in. The woman Stephen loved and lost scrolls through his mind constantly. His memory of her is what keeps him alive and believing there will be a tomorrow beyond the hell he is in now. Their story is told, you will see, in recollections and flashbacks during his worst times at war. Those memories are his only grasp on sanity in an insane place. So, this is a war story, and we've seen them before. Right? Right. However, having visited the very moving and sobering Viet Nam War Memorial in Washington, DC, and the American Cemetery in Normandy, France (three times - one of the saddest and most beautiful places on Earth), as effective as those experiences were, they don't, and aren't meant to, convey the terror and madness experienced by those soldiers when they died. This film and its stars, come about as close as one can to showing us what it is like to hold a dying soldiers hand, to be mortally wounded, to see in your mind the faces of the ones you love as your life slips away from you, or how random life and death on the battlefield can be. It's in their eyes. It's especially in the eyes of Eddie Redmayne. So, despite the fact that the script has real problems and the editing not much better (another reviewer mentioned that piano arpeggio "borrowed" from Avo Part's "Spiegle Im Spiegle"? Overdone does not come close to describing how much this plot device was overused), the film succeeds in many ways and on many levels. One of those is the acting from Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Mawle, and Richard Madden. They effectively establish the bond between men who share the life and death experiences of an ugly war. In particular, the storyline between Redmayne's character, Stephen Wraysford, and Joseph Mawle's character, Jack Firebrace, is powerful. It, more than the love story, in the fulcrum of this narrative. Their performances convey what a mind and body are put through when they're at war, and the inevitable carnage that will live in the memory forever of one of them and die with the other. Through their relationship, Stephen becomes a man. And while I don't like doing this, I am going to take issue with some of the reviews I've read here that attack the lead actor based on his looks and acting skill. As for the looks, since when is a soldier supposed to look like anything more than an average guy? Because that's who goes to war. Average, regular, guys. Though I would also take issue with describing Redmayne as "average". He has a compelling on screen handsomeness that is undeniable. As for the swipes at his acting skills, especially that he is "wooden" (?), everyone is entitled to an opinion, I just gave mine, but some of these comments read like they were written by someone using an alias who was up for the lead role and didn't get it. Seriously. Eddie Redmayne can find a perfect pitch in any role he does. His filmography has a varied scope of characters that he has played with a realness that is unparalleled. While others "act", he "lives" the characters he plays on screen. This film is very much worth consideration.

Having read the book previously I was interested to see how they transformed this complex interwoven drama onto screen. Unfortunately I was underwhelmed. The actor playing Stephan failed to convey Stephan's emotional ambiguity. The actress playing Isabelle I found similarly underwhelming. The use of overly long staring as a technique to build up the sexual tension between the star crossed lovers was irritating in the extreme.The battle scenes lacked the clawing fear found in masters of the genre, the trenches were too dry, too well constructed. There was never the sense of foreboding before going over the top that I was expecting. Similarly the scenes in the tunnels lacked the feelings of claustrophobia conveyed in the book. As a comparison the film "Das Boot" based on the story of a U-boat crew showed that it is possible to build a sense of paralyzing claustrophobia if you have a good director, well written script and actors with the necessary talent and experience.Overall a very disappointing effort.