‘Benediction’: Story of a poet who went to war

Above : Jack Lowden stars as the poet Siegfried Sassoon in Terence Davies’ film “Benediction.” (Photo/Roadside Attractions)

Siegfried Sassoon is a name that almost has been lost to history. Outside of a few university literature courses, most people couldn’t begin to explain who he is. Or was.

That’s one reason why the movie “Benediction,” which is slated to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre , is worth seeing. Directed by Terence Davies , and starring both Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi as Sassoon, it documents Sassoon’s life – from his experiences as a British officer in World War I to his emergence as a world-renowned poet and then how trauma affected him throughout his long life (he died in 1967 at the age of 81).

The other reason, of course, is that Davies is a master filmmaker whose works include “Distant Voices, Still Lives” (1988), “The Deep Blue Sea” (2011) and “A Quiet Passion” (2016).

But “Benediction” isn’t simply a biopic. It is a study of Sassoon’s sometimes tortured existence, affected as it was both by the PTSD he suffered from the war and from being gay during a time when being so was illegal.

As Radheyen Simonpillal wrote in NOW Toronto, “Davies tells Sassoon’s story with his typical formalistic and sensual style, elevating what could easily have been an ornate period piece about lingering trauma and living passionately as a closeted gay man.”

Clarisse Loughrey of The (London) Observer, wrote that the film is “one man’s breathless search, careening back and forth through the chapters of his life in search of something concrete and true. It’s beautiful, but only in the way it tends to its tragedies with such care.”

It might be worth it to read some of Sassoon’s work before you go. Click here to begin .