Welcome to week two of my New Years Resolution! I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this one. I have been avoiding this book and movie since my high school days. I managed to dodge it several times. Now here it is in my lap. No more avoiding. So here we go!
Again I couldn't find a suitable recipe in Movie Night Menus, so I was on my own again. I decided to research what soldiers ate in the trenches. Turns out that the staple was a stew. It was comprised of beef, turnips, onions, potatoes, beans, and carrots in a thin gravy. It was produced in tins by a company named Maconochie. So the stew was just called Maconochie. They also had hard biscuits and an allowance for alcohol. I can do this! I have to make it vegetarian and non-alcoholic, but this is totally doable.
So I found these wonderful vegan dehydrated beef strips. I'm not a vegan only a vegetarian, but that's what I could find. Perfect for the stew! I boiled them in vegetable stock seasoned with garlic and onion powder. Then I added red potatoes, onions, turnips, great northern beans, and carrots. I added a lot of salt and pepper. Then some flour to thicken the gravy. Easy! For biscuits, I just made some canned flaky biscuits. And to drink, sparkling grape juice. Closest I could come to wine. I know they didn't have wine as a staple, but it was periodically available. Maconochie, in reality, was actually really gross and eaten cold out of the can because lighting a fire to heat it would draw enemy gunfire. The biscuits that they ate were old and hard and full of bugs. I'm not going that far. My troops are going to be better fed!
I've never made stew before, so I was really nervous about how this would turn out. Come to think of it, I don't even think I've ever had stew. However, it was awesome! Really simple, comforting, warm. Filling!! Even the fake beef was tasty! And biscuits, well, you just can't go wrong with fresh biscuits. Same thing with sparkling grape juice. It's not wine, but whatcha gonna do? And I served it again on my beautiful mismatched depression glass. :-)
Now onto the long dreaded movie. I cannot believe that I avoided this film. I was so good! I gotta be honest the acting sometimes was a bit unnatural and overly dramatic, but everything else was so beautifully done that it was just a momentary distraction and you could get right back into the film. The direction was amazing. Beautifully shot with great camera angles. The choreography during the fighting and explosions was particularly impressive. Not that I've ever been to war before but it seemed really realistic. The explosions were remarkably close to the actors. I can't believe that no one was hurt on set. It was stunning.
The story was very poignant. It had appropriate highs and lows. Not every second was miserable. It showed the realities of war and comradery between the men. A very balanced honest film. I'm not so sure that I would say that it was antiwar, it was just honest. War is not a pleasure cruise. When you are in the trenches rules don't apply and what you have is your buddies. It's horrible. People, young people, important people, die. They just exist and go from day to day trying to get the most out of it. Small pleasures that they have taken for granted and everyday things that were once important become ridiculous. It also seemed that no one really knew what they were fighting for. They were just going and doing what they were told. That made some of the scenes even harder. The deaths were pointless when you looked at war at a closer level. That's the message that came across to me.
I'm so glad that this movie was on the list! It was a wonderful film. And my dinner was really good too!
Love,
Olive
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