Drama which deals with a multinational conglomerate whose heads are all members of the same family; some of them become enemies when World War One breaks out.
A weird film, which sort of proves a personal theorem of mine, stating that the quality of a film is often closely related to the amenability of its story to fit an acceptable duration, given the market constraints. Here, it is obvious that this amenability does not happen, and the film feels like it has huge chunks of character development and plot altogether missing. Apart from that, there are other problems with the film that are screenplay-related and happen mostly in the last section; particularly unsavory is the bombastic behavior which is ascribed to character 'Richard'; the final appeal to religion is a bit awkward too, and, at least as viewed today, does not seem integral to the drama. But the film is not a total loss: it is lucid in its assessment of the post-WWI zeitgeist, and now we know that its worst fears became tragic reality in subsequent years; also, it is technically well-made, especially the battlefield sequences.
Rating: 37
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