This plain companion piece to the plush, sentimental War Horse, adapted by Simon Reade from Michael Morpurgo's novel for young adults, is a sort of junior version of Joseph Losey's anti-war picture King & Country or Kubrick's Paths of Glory. It's about injustice in rural Devon and on the Western Front as experienced by a widowed working-class woman and her three honest sons, one of whom – manifestly innocent of desertion – goes before a firing squad after Field Marshal Haig himself confirms the death sentence. It's perhaps more TV than cinema, but O'Connor directs with a firm hand, and children will learn valuable lessons from it.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/14/private-peaceful-review-jack-oconnell
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