Television series
Birdsong
A haunting WWI epic that braids intimate romance with the mechanical horror of trench warfare. Eddie Redmayne's soldier is shattered between a prewar love affair and the carnage of the Somme, where memory becomes both torment and lifeline. Visually ravishing and emotionally devastating—not comfort viewing, but unforgettable.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want a slow-burning romance whose past love and wartime trenches keep bleeding into each other, and you're happy to let a feeling build rather than be handed to you.
Skip it if you want the war front and centre, since here the romance tends to lead and the trenches often feel like a backdrop to the mood.
What it asks of you: Two long episodes, ninety minutes in all, moving at a deliberate pace with stretches of quiet looking and remembering, so it rewards staying put.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Regeneration1997
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in a psychiatric hospital confronting trauma and poetry. Explores shell shock with intelligence and restraint, finding humanity in psychological collapse without ever looking away.
But Deliberately paced and introspective. Very British, very quiet. Some may find the hospital setting claustrophobic rather than liberating.
Testament of Youth2015
Vera Brittain's memoir of losing everyone she loves in the Great War. Alithea Chanya as Brittain is extraordinary—it's a film about grief that doesn't soften its edges or offer false comfort.
But Relentlessly bleak. Death arrives without warning or reprieve. If you're looking for redemption or recovery, you won't find it here.
Paths of Glory1957
Kubrick's masterpiece about the mechanics of military injustice. Kirk Douglas commanding and furious. Every frame builds a case against the systems that feed men into machines for nothing.
But Deliberately cold and architectural. Anger doesn't translate into emotional catharsis. It's a sermon, and some viewers resent being sermonized.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Birdsong
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
All the Light We Cannot See2023
Both center a prewar love story shattered and revisited through wartime trauma. Both argue that connection across impossible division is what makes us human, not what saves us from horror.
A French girl and a German boy separated by occupation but bound by a radio signal and shared humanity. Gorgeously rendered, intimate in scale, it finds tenderness in a brutalized landscape without pretending the brutality isn't there.
But Netflix miniseries gloss and accessibility. Some purists find the soft-focus cinematography incompatible with the real suffering being depicted. More romantic than political.
More like this (6)
The Crimson Field2014
A field hospital in France where nurses and doctors improvise salvation under impossible pressure. Ensemble drama with surprising warmth—finds the small kindnesses that make survival possible.
But Network television softens some edges. Medical trauma is present but rarely graphic. May feel gentler than you want after Birdsong's intensity.
Johnny Got His Gun1971
A soldier so damaged by shellfire he cannot move, speak, or see—conscious only of existence. Truffaut's influence, antiwar conviction, and Timothy Bottoms's performance create something genuinely otherworldly.
But Deliberately surreal and nightmarish. Compassion fatigue sets in. Some viewers find the metaphysical sequences precious rather than profound.
A Very Long Engagement2004
A woman searching for her disappeared soldier through bureaucratic nightmare and mystery. Audrey Tautou's determination driving a gorgeously shot, intricately plotted love story that doubles as a war crime investigation.
But Over two hours, baroque in structure, and occasionally too clever for its own good. The tonal shifts between romance and horror aren't always seamless.
Gallipoli1981
Peter Weir's masterpiece about two Australian runners before and during the failed Gallipoli campaign. Mel Gibson and Mark Lee are luminous. A friendship drama that becomes a statement about sacrifice and futility.
But The ending is deliberately cruel, almost punitive. If you're watching for hope, it will disappoint. The tone can feel dated to modern eyes.
The Trench1999
Twenty-four hours before a doomed assault. Ensemble of young men waiting for death, acting out class conflict and friendship and fear. Low-budget but visually inventive, claustrophobic in the best way.
But No-name cast and lean production values. Some sequences feel like a stage play. The limited scope means it never quite builds to the scale of its ambition.
The Nightingale2018
Both reject the idea that love or courage can transcend war's logic. Both show ordinary people discovering that the person you were before the war is someone you can never return to being.
Isabelle Huppert as a woman in occupied France making impossible choices between survival, resistance, and moral compromise. A thriller, yes, but one that insists morality collapses under pressure and choice becomes illusion.
But Not about the trenches—WWII occupation instead. Brutally unsentimental about resistance mythology. Huppert's character is neither heroic nor forgivable, which some viewers find frustrating.
People
Cast
Recommended by
Testament of Youth, A Month in the Country, My Family and Other Animals, My Boy Jack, Passchendaele