jrarichards Review of The Relief of Belsen

The Relief of Belsen (2007 TV Movie)

Faithful recreation of the greatest single thing Britain ever did

[9/10 · 19 November 2015]

Brits finding their patriotism wavering might do well to watch this film. If winning the Second World War was our country's greatest achievement, then surely an event that best epitomised what that vast 6-year effort was all about was the stepwise British restoration of civilisation, humanity, kindness, decency and dignity (and of course - but last of all - health) in the wake of the pitiless eradication of all of those fine things by Nazi Germany in the context of the affront to humanity that was the Bergen-Belsen Camp. The moving beauty of what was achieved overall is made all the more poignant by the fact that much of the film (based very clearly on the rather numerous surviving diary accounts, papers and other forms of documentation) is devoted to people arguing, failing, feeling overwhelmed, not knowing what to do for the best, drinking a fair amount to drown their sorrows (this is certainly documented fact), wishing to be elsewhere and genuinely "muddling through" in the time-honoured British fashion that sadly coincided with ongoing deaths from malnutrition, disease and apathy of thousands of inmates even after the Germans had been sent packing. As often with close-to-the-truth recreations of historical events, some of the work looks better and more authentic than others. The near-surreal scenes of arrival at the start of the film are particularly well-done, and it is from that early point that we meet Captain Sington of the Intelligence Corps (whose portrayal by Tobias Menzies continues through to the end of the film as a kind of solid backbone seeming particularly true-to-life). Given his real-life politics, Corin Redgrave does particularly well in offering us a very plausible (and rather cuddly) Brigadier Glyn Hughes - a man in real life loved and appreciated hugely by military personnel and ex-inmates at Belsen alike. A far more complex, but very sympathetic character is Rabbi Captain Leslie Hardman, as played by Paul Hilton. Oliver Ford Davies is also a natural as Col. Lipscomb. There are slightly more doubts about starring-role Iain Glen as Col. James Johnston, but many of these arise because we are a little too much under the impression of "Ser Jorah". Those seeing the "Relief of Belsen" on its release in 2007 would have been blissfully unaware of Glen's post-2011 career! Many other performances that look on paper as if they might be less significant make a major impression in the context of the film itself (especially Frog Stone as Hadassah Bimko and Henry Pettigrew as one of the 90+ students of the London medical schools who were indeed sent out to do this kind of impossibly challenging work, and did indeed have to grow up and wise up very quickly indeed). The biggest problem for me is Lt. Col. Mervyn Gonin, as played in rather sarcastic and bolshie fashion by Nigel Lindsay. Even given the inevitable disputes arising from the overwhelming magnitude of the task and the frustration felt at lack of progress with it, it seems hard to credit that Gonin could have been so sourly critical and insubordinate. Having said that, a talk given by Gonin readily consultable online had more to say about the men under his command (rightly so) and about Hughes than about Johnston, so perhaps there really was something there. The performance jars nonetheless. Overall, though, this is an immensely moving and authentic-looking film (interspersed with real-life footage and quotes) that is all the more patriotic for its juxtaposition of human frailties and an achievement that was nevertheless one of the most truly selfless and noble of any history has to offer. A further element of that eclectic mix comes at the very end of the film when we learn of the humdrum, everyday places that the key heroes of the film eventually returned to, having done their best at a place that was the most extreme antithesis possible of anything humdrum and everyday. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, as it were...