The Long Day’s Dying
- ️Variety Staff
- ️Mon Jan 01 1968
The Long Day's Dying is a bore. In tracing the steps of three British soldiers and their German captive during a single day of weary trekking through the European countryside, it adds nothing in the way of insight or impact to the dreary platitudes of countless previous anti-war pix.
The Long Day’s Dying is a bore. In tracing the steps of three British soldiers and their German captive during a single day of weary trekking through the European countryside, it adds nothing in the way of insight or impact to the dreary platitudes of countless previous anti-war pix.
Charles Wood’s script is lacking in dramatic momentum and fails to clarify the four protagonists’ characters. Even worse, no sympathy or interest is developed for any of the men.
Script’s use of interior monologs is clumsy, frequently counterpointing the various men’s thoughts in an archly poetic way and never helping to define their inner natures.
Direction by Peter Collinson is lackluster. When not relying on established tricks of documentary filmmaking or more up-to-date visual affectations, he holds on closeups of his ‘thinking’ actors. Fact that all four players register little beyond grim impassivity hardly lightens the pace of this lethargic film.
