Watch the Rousing First Trailer for the Extremely British WWI Drama Journey’s End

Watch the Rousing First Trailer for the Extremely British WWI Drama Journey’s End

The first trailer for Journey’s End is here, and it would very much like to tell you how wonderful a depiction of British men in World War I it is.

The trailer, which gives a lot of screen time to rapturous praise from press, shows Asa Butterfield playing a baby-faced soldier who joins a childhood friend on the front lines. But then it turns out that the trenches of WWI are a terrible place to be during WWI—who could have known?

Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany and Toby Jones round out the cast as fellow soldiers who are also not quite sold on the whole “eating rats and living in mud while getting shot at” thing. Here’s the film’s official synopsis, per Express:

Based on RC Sherriff’s play and novel of the same name, Journey’s End is set in March 1918 as C-Company, led by a war-weary Captain Stanhope (Claflin) arrives in northern France to take its turn in the front-line trenches.

Told that a German offensive is imminent, Stanhope drowns his fears in whisky whilst the officers (Bettany, Stephen Graham, Tom Sturridge) and their cook (Jones) attempt to distract themselves in their dugout with talk of food and life before war.

They are joined by Raleigh (Butterfield), a young new officer fresh out of training excited about his first real posting, and a chance to serve under Stanhope. 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.

The project has been in the works for years, and has experienced some delays. But the resulting trailer is pretty rousing, and coming from Saul Dibb, the director of The Duchess, we can expect it to be a treat visually.

Having premiered at TIFF, Journey’s End comes out Feb. 2, 2018 in the U.K. No word yet on its Stateside release.

 
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