- Won 2 BAFTA Awards
- 5 wins & 1 nomination total
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Featured review
Documentary Greatness
On the surface Morgan Matthews documentary hardly breaks new ground on the genre front . A three hour documentary featuring archive news footage combined with talking head interviews centered around the 300 British service personnel killed in the war against terror . Taken at face value it's like asking " Who would want to watch a nine hour documentary featuring the holocaust ? " but that would be insulting SHOAH whilst denying the power of documentary . I can't think of anything I've seen recently that has moved me so much as THE FALLEN . Nor am I ashamed to say that I wept while watching it
The format is simple . Interviews with the relatives of personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, photos and footage of much loved siblings fathers and sons , cross cut with the testimony by a journalist or former serving officer or of news footage of roadside bombings and firefights . Everyone's name is listed from first fatality Lance Corporal Darren George to Marines Neil Dunstan and Robert McKibben killed by an IED just before broadcast , The simplicity shouldn't be interpreted as a criticism and brings a very subliminal quality from the start as graves are visited and letters read . Neither should it be forgotten that the immediate " in yer face " moments are any less haunting such as the mother of Christopher Gray as she describes the death of her son as we're shown his finals hours caught on camera . This is what marks THE FALLEN as being true documentary greatness - you just want to wrap your arms around the relatives involved and make the whole world right . There's added bleak poignancy when you realise you can't . These relatives will feel their loss for the rest of their lives . It's something that not only makes you think but makes you feel
Fortunately for our generation unlike those of the 1914-18 and 1939-45 generations war is a rare and abstract thing . The unfortunate thing about this is that the average Briton is ignorant about the human cost of war . Worse still those who have lost loved ones will probably be left more isolated from society and forgotten than by other generations . That's the impression I am left with . Humbling to watch , even more humbling to comment on THE FALLEN shows the human cost of war more incisively than anything I've ever seen and that alone marks it out for documentary greatness
The format is simple . Interviews with the relatives of personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, photos and footage of much loved siblings fathers and sons , cross cut with the testimony by a journalist or former serving officer or of news footage of roadside bombings and firefights . Everyone's name is listed from first fatality Lance Corporal Darren George to Marines Neil Dunstan and Robert McKibben killed by an IED just before broadcast , The simplicity shouldn't be interpreted as a criticism and brings a very subliminal quality from the start as graves are visited and letters read . Neither should it be forgotten that the immediate " in yer face " moments are any less haunting such as the mother of Christopher Gray as she describes the death of her son as we're shown his finals hours caught on camera . This is what marks THE FALLEN as being true documentary greatness - you just want to wrap your arms around the relatives involved and make the whole world right . There's added bleak poignancy when you realise you can't . These relatives will feel their loss for the rest of their lives . It's something that not only makes you think but makes you feel
Fortunately for our generation unlike those of the 1914-18 and 1939-45 generations war is a rare and abstract thing . The unfortunate thing about this is that the average Briton is ignorant about the human cost of war . Worse still those who have lost loved ones will probably be left more isolated from society and forgotten than by other generations . That's the impression I am left with . Humbling to watch , even more humbling to comment on THE FALLEN shows the human cost of war more incisively than anything I've ever seen and that alone marks it out for documentary greatness
helpful•20
- Theo Robertson
- Nov 17, 2008
Details
Box office
- Budget
- £500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime3 hours
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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