Harald Zwart's THE 12TH MAN (2017)

 

We've all been cold, but have we cut our toes

Right off our feet 'gainst gangrene, started when

They froze in winter seawater, then snows

That buried us for days? I haven't been

Quite there. Nor have I been a hero, passed

Around a nation like a living prize

That everyone's decided is their last

Best hope for freedom. Jesus, though, those eyes.

Throughout Jan Baalstrud's journey as portrayed

By Thomas Gullestad, now clear, now red

Like nothing should be red, from snow glare, stayed

With me for hours. There are sights to dread,

But also thrills to have, as when, at speed

A reindeer drags him racing in his need!

Geoff Davis' WILLIAM KELLY'S WAR (2014)

Long ere Bruce Wayne went bats, one Billy K

His brother and his cousin, duty-bound,

Signed up to fight the Great War far away.

Meanwhile in Oz, bad guys were all around

The fam'ly spread, and Billy's sis was cute!

So many genres in one movie! There's 

War stuff and hot revenge -- watch Billy shoot

Unerringly wherever Billy fares!

His mother speechifies, his sister shrinks

From nothing, and his brother's Batman, too!

The script is tight, the music's fine, the links

'Twixt shell-shock and rough justice, they feel true. 

The Brothers Davis, though, are writers first. 

I can't quite call their acting, though, the worst.

William Boyd's THE TRENCH (1999)

A stage director would not have to change
A thing about this setting, tight and dark.
There's noncom Daniel Craig cast with a range
Of fresh young faces, soon to make their mark
Onscreen. No gore is spared and that despite
A dearth of action. This could be a play,
A psychodrama. Tension in the night

Is rooted in the characters. Some may
Think Blackadder Goes Forth is on repeat,
If minus all the laughs that World War One

Supplied in such abundance. Ere they greet

Their fated doom, the standard things are done,

Back stories told, surprise explosions, and

A shot or two of green and pleasant land.