Landship

Writers: Andrew Burn and Callum Burn

Director: Callum Burn

Callum and Arthur Burn are a father and son team whose passionate interest in historical warfare led to their setting up of Tin Hat Productions. Landship is their full-length feature film, set during the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele following a newly formed tank corps at a time when tanks were extraordinary new technology.

The truth is faithfully reproduced to good effect in Landship. The interior of the tank is recreated with evocative details. There’s the tiny, clouded window which is all the gunner has to see through, the hole through which a form of periscope is raised, the laborious crank mechanism used to get the vehicle going. And beyond this, the film conveys the sheer clumsiness of these first generation tanks which are almost impossible to manouevre in the crater-ridden mud of no man’s land.

What an intense drama needs beyond realistic visuals is of course strongly drawn characters, powerful dialogue and a compelling narrative. This is where Landship, despite its admirable intentions, falls down. The personalities of the eight men and their new commander are often hard to distinguish for over half the film. We gradually pick up names. We know one man is deeply religious – he recites prayers at the drop of a hat. Most of the men, from their accents, are northerners from a range of regions.

The central character, Commander Richardson, is drawn stereotypically. He’s a stiff upper class Englishman, with seemingly little empathy for his men. Even his make-up, his beetling brows and a fresh wound close to his right eye, makes him look alarmingly like a pantomime villain. He is introduced to the men in a perfunctory scene (‘Section Commander Richardson is joining us today’) which gives no clue as to the background. Who had led the men before? Why this change of personnel?

The main tension in the film depends on growing discontent with his leadership. It goes without saying that the tank’s interior produces a highly claustrophobic space. The film’s narrative arc around the one-hour make suggests that something happens that makes all the men bond. But it’s not entirely clear what that is. There’s been a full-on revolt (“twat” and “shit-hole” have been banded around freely). Then the commander collapses from wounds. There follows an extended sequence in which he’s out in no man’s land facing the enemy alone. Then he wakes to find it was all a dream. Next thing we know, he’s sharing his hip flask of brandy: “You’re the finest damn crew in the entire British Army!” as the men’s faces gleam with comradeliness.

The dialogue is regrettably clunky, either faux archaic (“Spare Jerry no quarter!”) or anachronistic (“Listen up, men”). Communications with HQ are clearly impossible. There’s talk of sending out a carrier pigeon. The commander assures the men that help is coming (“Our boys are on their way!”).

For extended periods of the film not a lot happens. A hapless young private braves crawling out of the tank only for a sinister gas-masked German to slit his throat. The Commander deduces the enemy have a cunning plan (“They’re playing with us!”) to get them to use up their ammunition, rendering them an undefendable sitting target.

Exterior scenes are suitably nightmarish, everything taking place in a thick pall of smoke. But often individual moments of drama are too quickly defused. A soldier shouts “Gas!” – but then there isn’t any. Two handgrenades are lobbed into the tank’s turrets. But we have to assume fail to detonate, as nothing more transpires.

In the final twenty minutes there’s more action. First a slow-paced encounter between a German officer and Richardson. Then it’s the final battle into which the Burns, father and son, invest a great deal of energy.

The outline facts of Landship are based on real events. Most of the men made it back and were decorated for their efforts. And in fact Callum and Andrew Burn made an excellent 26 minute film, Fray Bentos (the wry name of the tank) back in 2013 which told the same story more tautly.

One cannot but admire their enthusiasm, especially when the credits reveal they’ve done everything from set and prop building to visual effects. But they really need to find a good scriptwriter.

Landship will be in UK Cinemas from 26th June.