Beneath Hill 60 and Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

Beneath Hill 60 and Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

War does not determine who is right - only who is left. Wars have a profound impact on every involved society more so on the personals lives of soldiers during the war. Investigating this issue is a key concern of the two texts, Dulce Et Decorum Est By Wilfred Owen and Beneath Hill 60 by Jeremy Sims. Both texts reflect a desire by their composers to cast a light on the ignorance of authorities and traumatising events the soldiers had to go through.
Throughout "Dulce et Decorum Est" the poet utilises a variety of powerful poetic devices in order to depict death in war as a brutal and horrifying experience using themes such as “anger with uncaring authority” and “the inevitability and repetition of trauma”. The build up of confusion and violent tones of the battlefield scenes creates a high modality accusation about the authorities telling “The old lie” which was “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” meaning “how sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country”. This is the glorification of war reflected in Latin words, taken from an ode by Horace (a poet from Ancient Rome). Owen clearly shows anger with the war authorities by calling the Latin phrase an “old lie”. By doing this, he is challenging the motives and practices of the war authorities by showing the contrast between the reality of war and the representation to people who had never been to war. The poem portrays everything apart from how sweet and fitting it is to die for your own country and his opposition throughout the whole poem.

In Owen’s illustration of war, he describes an incident of soldiers limping back from the Front through mud of the battlefield. An appalling image is expressed through simile and metaphor, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”, they were compared to old ugly women which would be true, as they had a lack of sleep, their uniforms resembled sacks and their blood-caked feet were stumbling through the mud. The group gets attacked with mustard gas. Mustard gas reacts with water in your lungs creating a corrosive chemical which burn the lung from inside. One soldier was too late in putting the mask on. Owen describes the man’s symptoms as “floundering like a man in fire or lime”, meaning he was slowly dying as the corrosive chemical choked him.

The ttone of the poem is very harsh due to the choice of words and how they are used. Owen gives us graphic descriptions, speaking in a very direct and straightforward way, using words that convey ugliness, fear and pain, for example: “coughing like hags,” “cursed through sludge,” “limped on, blood-shod,” “floundering like a man in fire or lime” (lime meaning a corrosive substance), “guttering, choking, drowning,” “white eyes writhing,” “blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,” “vile, incurable sores.” The repetition of these words, are used to create a horrific and painful visual image in the readers head.

Alliteration in the poem, serves to draw the attention of the reader, as expressed in: "And watch the white eyes writhing in his face," which creates a harsh and confronting image within the reader's mind. "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin", it is through the use of simile that Owen stimulates sympathy from the reader as he draws a grotesque death with descriptive words.

On the other hand we have “Beneath Hill 60”, a war movie and Jeremy Sims’ perception of war. Jeremy Sims uses a selection of visual and cinematic techniques to put forward the brutal and horrifying experience of war. Sims uses the same themes as Owen, “anger with uncaring authority” and “the inevitability and repetition of trauma”.

In the scene, where Jim Sneddon is in the tunnel and comes out to report to captain Woodward that he thinks there will be an attack from the Germans, colonel Rutledge orders him back into the tunnel saying that he doesn’t have permission to leave his designated spot even to report. Walter Sneddon comes back to join his father, but before he enters the tunnel, it blows up and Jim Sneddon dies. The ignorance of colonel Rutledge was the cause of this horrific event. The non-digectic sounds in the background create juxtaposition. Triumphant music and a sad storyline are put into this scene to create contrast between what is happening. This long shot of Woodward, Rutledge and Walter Sneddan after the explosion is considered a mise en scene. You can see the grief and shock in their eyes. The extreme close up shot of Jim Sneddon before he dies is there to make you sympathise his son that he left behind. The lighting of the room is very bright and makes the impact of Jim’s death even more horrific for the soldiers. The silence of colonel Rutledge confirms that he feels guilty for Jim’s death and that he has no words as he is in shock.

The film has effectively conveyed how age, maturity and previous life experiences help individual soldiers cope with frightening situations in war. The movie shows how different people act and deal with death and fear. The movie is accessible and conveys the themes and ideas visually as well as verbally. As demonstrated in the scene where captain Oliver Woodward and private Frank Tiffin run into the dugout when the explosions were happening. They are terrified while lt. Robert Clayton is making hot tea. William McBride attempts to ignore the explosions by starting a small chat. Meanwhile, poor Tiffin is screaming and whaling like a child as each explosion causes the dugout to tremble. Character Tiffin is terrified and screaming in fear as shows the high angle shots that make Tiffin look even smaller and vulnerable than he already is. Tiffin’s uniform is muddy and torn showing the danger and barbaric conditions these soldiers had to fight in. Woodward is assured by Robert, “If you survive this year, it will feel like a lifetime”. This shows how daunting and exciting the war is.

This digectic sound of Tiffin crying and carrying on further elaborated how tremendously scary war is. Woodward and William cope with confrontations of explosions and war by mocking lt. Robert Clayton. Woodward asks William what’s wrong with Clayton and William replies saying “Clayton’s all right he is just wind up him”. This dialogue confirms that everyone is traumatised and stressed and have had enough of war. The lighting is uninviting and dark showing how claustrophobic and confronting war is. In addition, props of photographs are a coping mechanism from horrendous war shelling and confrontation of war. Therefore a range of ideas about the war are conveyed and therefore is a more effective way to show impact of war.
The reasons stated above have clearly shown that “In war, individual lives are changed forever”, from traumatising events to the ignorance of authorities. Both the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and the movie “Beneath Hill 60” have shown the real sides to the war, presenting gruesome scenes or grotesque imagery in text. What we observe, therefore, is that Wilfred Owen's poetry is effective in conveying his negative attitudes towards war more than the film. Owen uses a lot of imagery and poetic techniques such as metaphors, similes and alliteration to stimulate the reader and make them be the judge of what he has written. Poems let you take your own perception and modify it into whatever you believe with the help of poetic techniques.

In the poem, Owen’s anger is seen through the line “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori”. He is portraying how ironic the authorities are by saying that it is sweet and fitting to die for your own country. His poetry is infused with a profound depth of emotion as he grieves and mourns those who lost their lives and attempts to portray the devastating consequences of war, as he perceived them through his own experiences.