Powerful, grim and compelling adaptation of Pat Barker's prize-winning novel, set in a Scottish hospital during the First World War. Eminent psychiatrist Captain William Rivers (Jonathan Pryce) questions his values and training when charged with treating victims of shell shock, only to send the soldiers back into active service at the Front.
He is particularly challenged when the poet and decorated soldier Siegfried Sassoon (James Wilby) is declared mentally ill for making an anti-war statement.
Beautifully shot - especially the awesome opening aerial view of a mud-filled battlefield, covered with corpses - it's clear that director Gillies MacKinnon has worked hard. While not always totally successful (the film veers on the over-romanticised), it's still a worthy effort with some excellent performances, particularly from Pryce and Wilby.
Regeneration is a Film programme that first aired in 1997 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
