We had the trailer for the indie movie Landship recently, and it looked interesting. I’m a fan of movies with limited cast, in enclosed spaces. I was sent a screener, and here’s my review.
Landship stars Vin Hawke, Sam Dowdy, David Dobson, Jeffery Mundell, Matthew Canny, Daniel Cornish, and Micky David. Callum Burn directs and co-writes with Andrew Burn.
The pair are known for their work on wartime movies, based on true stories (as I can tell). Most of their movies are indie, and I’m not familiar with them. I’m not big into war movies, just not my cuppa.
The Story
The story for Landship is:
Stranded and slowly sinking into the fetid mud of Passchendaele, the crew of a British WW1 Tank fight for their lives against an insidious and determined enemy.
I’m not going to go into the story in all that much detail, as it will spoil things. Trapped inside Battle Tank F41 ‘Fray Bentos’, if you’re English, that name will make you smile.
They are leading a British offensive in Passchendaele, 1917. You have several soldiers trapped in a tank and have to survive. As the time ticks by, things just get worse, and the pressure starts to get to all the men.
As I said, that’s all I will spoil of the story, but it’s good, and kept me invested.
Indie Constraints
Hollywood throws money around like snowballs in a snowstorm. When it comes to indie movies, I know how difficult it is to get the money, and then they have to spend it very wisely. They can’t just throw money around for the fun of it.
Landship was shot on a budget. I don’t want to sound like a ‘pretentious critic’, but you can see they had little money. However, the saying is ‘necessity is the mother of invention’.
Because there was little money, they had to get creative. Yes, they had a tank, but they didn’t have millions to spend on recreating a battlefield in Belgium. Instead, they had to use a sound set and use smoke to make it look like it was.
This was done really well. There are shots, looking over the battlefield, where you know something is moving around, but you cannot tell what; it put me on the edge of my seat in places.
Overall
Again, as I said, I’m not a big one for war movies, but the concept of the claustrophobic space appealed to me. There are times when it works, and times when it doesn’t.
I’m not familiar with the cast of Landship; there are a few names that have worked with the director before. Being as diplomatic as I can, the acting ranges from good to bad. There are times I’m hooked on every word, and other places where I think I’m watching The Room.
Landship makes a solid effort to tell a story, but it’s sadly hit and miss, for me at least.
One other thing that annoyed me was the end. Without spoiling it, they list who was in the tank and where they are now. You know what would have been nice? Some photos of the actual crew, instead, they put up flashcards with the details on. I felt this was a shame.
Overall, I’m giving Landship 3 out of 5 stars, and I’m giving it that with some benefit of the doubt. Since war movies aren’t really my thing, I’m only judging it via ‘a movie about war’. There’s a solid movie in there, but it just can’t seem to get out.
Landship will be in UK cinemas on the 26th June.
