Mobithailand 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.

kosmasp 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.

mrs elizabeth a eden The scenery was very good and the acting of Jack Mawle as Firebrace was superb but that is the best that I can say about this film.After reading Faulks' amazing book it was a huge disappointment; Eddie Redmayne spent a lot of time staring, Clemency Poesy often looked to be in pain and their "love-making" lacked any sign of love; it was crudely portrayed.I am sorry to say that my husband and I have made two attempts to watch it and each time given up from boredom before the end. More than once we asked ourselves if we would have known what was going on had we not read the book.The flash backs were intrusive and the pace of the film slow; no wonder Sebastian Faulks expressed his misgivings about the making of a feature-length Hollywood movie.

Piafredux In 'Birdsong,' which is overall dismal, self-indulgent, plodding, and almost lethally dull, there is one good thing, just one: Marie-Josée Croze, whose acting in this miniseries made her character, Jeanne, stand out to convince the audience that, among the series' other bloodless uninteresting characters, Jeanne alone is flesh and blood, heart and soul - a genuine, fully-dimensioned human being jam-packed with sense and emotion. Ten stars, then, for Ms. Croze's performance.To my wits and sense the rest of the characters appeared to be cardboard cutouts - yes, even Jack Firebrace, who struck me as inhabiting the BBC's stock role of the working class stand-in who delivers the BBC's notional ration of the homely wisdom of the Great Unwashed whom the bien pensant of the BBC unfailingly show themselves to hold in contempt, except when it suits the British political class's worship and imposition of dead dull Marxist tropes.Great, memorable filmmaking succeeds at showing that less is more. 'Birdsong' lavishes an immense surfeit of less, bereft even of the pretense to have even lethargically hinted at more.