blessing

Summary:

Benediction explores the turbulent life of World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon through the eyes of respected filmmaker Terence Davies. Sassoon was a complex man who survived the horrors of combat in the First World War and was rewarded for his bravery, but became a critical voice against the government’s direction in the war when he returned from military service. His poems were inspired by his experiences on the Western Front, and he became one of the leading war poets of the time. He was idolized by members of the aristocracy and London’s literary and theatrical figures, and had affairs with various men while trying to come to terms with his homosexuality. At the same time, devastated by the horrors of war, he devoted his life to achieving salvation and sought to find it in marriage and religious harmony. His story is the story of a troubled man in a divided world, seeking peace and self-acceptance, which resonates in the modern world with the same resonance as then.