#the war below

[fukutomichi]

The Rings of Power Cast Watchlist ➤ Theme: 📜 Period/Historical 📜 The War Below (2021) directed by J.P. Watts Sam Hazeldine as William Hackett

[multibebeedits]

This edit is still relevant ❤️

(but I’d now add his father roles in Requiem and Robin Hood 2006 here too)

[varda-star-queen]

The War Below

🎥 I'm still making my way through the Hazelverse and The War Below didn't disappoint. What a performance from Sam the man! I really loved his character in this for so many reasons. He was tough, noble and genuine.

⚒️I loved how he played a working-class man and especially a miner because a lot my own ancestors were miners! It was also amazing to read the interview with him and to discover how much he invested in the part and wanted to get it right. It was also interesting to read that he thought the role worthy enough to face up to his claustrophobia. (link to interview)

🪖It's a war film, so you can expect an expected outcome 😭 but it's well worth a watch.

💔Some bonus moments were when he was reading the letters to his wife back home - oh god his voice! And he did a great northern accent too. Ah my heart went out to his wife. Also his interaction at the start with his son was just adorable.

🚋Parts of this film were shot in Beamish which is a really cool place in the North of England that's an almost complete village "museum" with houses, shops, trams etc all set up like they were a hundred plus years ago and you can go into them all. It's somewhere I enjoy visiting and it was awesome to see it in a film.

And did I mention hands…? There are hands, and my god, they are big! 🥵 (I wish he would do that to me!)

[la-cinephile]

So, as I got very invested into The Rings of Power, I also got interested in the cast and their previous works, starting with Sam Hazeldine, of course!

I made a watchlist and I started with The Innocents, a limited TV show on Netflix in which Hazeldine plays the step-father of the main character, June, a teenage girl who has abilities that may be dangerous for herself but also for people around her. It's a bit too slow paced for me so it won't become one of my favorite TV shows but the concept is intriguing and interesting, with a good storytelling and a good cast (Guy Pearce is also in it and he looks nice too).

Sam Hazeldine in The Innocents (2018)

I also watched The War Below, a war movie about a group of British miners engaged during World War I to dig tunnels underneath a no man's land and to set explosives in order to blow up the german lines during the battle of Messines (1917). Hazeldine plays William Hawkin, the leader of the miners and it's surprisingly a pretty good movie, it's not the war movie we are used to, it's moving and I highly recommend it.

Sam Hazeldine in The War Bellow (2021)

[orehuna]

Ok so, I watched The War Below starring Sam Hazeldine because of course I fucking did and i...

I AM IN DENIAL AGAIN

why they do this to us 😭😭😭

*sobs in a corner*

[blahahala]

Watching Sam Hazeldine's Movies:

Since I liked his performance as Adar so much, I've started going through Sam Hazeldine's filmography. It is quite the array of movies; the only ones I've seen prior to starting this are The Hitman's Bodyguard and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

First, I watched The War Below (2021). I thought Sam's performance was excellent, but the rest of the film was just okay. I'm neutral on my recommendation of it.

Second, I watched '71 (2014). Sam's role in it is pretty small so I don't have much to say about it. The film itself, though, was very good and I recommend it - it is violent, though.

Most recently, I watched Dark Corners (2021). I don't even know where to start with this movie. I'll admit I was very curious after seeing the pretty terrible reviews, but went in with an open mind. Throughout the first half, I thought that maybe it was salvageable... but then it really went off the rails, veering into the realm of so absurd it becomes entertaining. Honestly, somehow, Sam's performance is decent in it which is honestly impressive considering what he was given to work with; I also liked T'Nia Miller in her role.

Me, while watching it:

Another favorite line:

Also the captions aren't exactly the best:

There are several talented performers in the movie so it's almost impressive that it's this bad. If you are someone who appreciates bad movies and in particular tubi films, then definitely check it out.

All three films are available to stream on tubi.

Not sure what to watch next, but I think I'll go for something with better reviews 😂

[madnessofmen]

Okay here it is: The War Below teardown.

For a movie ostensibly about tunneling operations in WWI, literally nothing about said tunneling operations is accurate.

The movie implies that the first use of mining was the battle of Messines (1917), and there were only a couple specialists to test the effectiveness; when irl it was already huge by that time.

Like literally what about the fucking Somme????? The movie acknowledges the Somme while ignoring the mining that happened there I guess???

And I haaaate the way this small group of miners is framed as like,,, civilian special ops. They are treated as Not Real Soldiers who don't understand military discipline because apparently they didn't get soldier training??? Why??? Again, totally ignoring the fact that the tunneling corps were, you know, a corps of soldiers. So the miners in the movie are consultants. Who wear uniforms and are subject to military rules and discipline. So they're not soldiers but they are soldiers but they aren't but they are.

The film also takes the struggles of bantam (5'-5'3") soldiers (initially rejected from service and then ostracized/demeaned by the other soldiers when they were accepted) and gives them to the miners. But without the height thing. Like. they should have at least made the miners bantam height. At least. Lots of bantam soldiers were miners before enlisting, and many became tunnelers afterwards because they could fit in confined spaces.

Another aspect of the civilian special ops framing is that apparently this handful of miners is the Only group of people that know how to mine. They outright reject the raising of hundreds of trained mining men, saying soldiers don't have the experience to know Real mining. Okay. As if the tunnels weren't built on the backs of tens of thousands of men. Fucking Randian great man bullshit. Terminal CEO brain.

Look at all the people involved in just the Messines mining operation!

And because the main cast/crew is only like five people, the plot demands that they only dig one tunnel with one explosive charge, when irl there were 26 tunnels+mines (of which 19 were detonated)!!

I hate this movie!!!

[multibebeedits]

Him with a mustache is EVERYTHING