A postcard from Bill tells the story of a family during world war who are dealing with being separated from their father as he is fighting for their country in the war. The opening sequence of this movie starts with an elusive clip of Bill in what I assume is the trench as he writes a postcard back to his family as the opening credits of planes cut interrupts through the scene teasing the story we are about to unfold throughout the movie. I thought this was a very clever way of opening the show as it not only teases the rest of the story but also instantly injects the audience into the story. The emotional undertones of the show are powerful enough on their own but the introduction of Marina Johnson as the wife of the serving Bill really helps to amplify how emotional this story is. Throughout the movie, this character creates a massive sense of sympathy as she tries to maintain the traditional family life while dealing with the despair of having a family member in one of the most dangerous situations to ever exist. My favourite performance from the entire show comes from Edward Johnson who plays the young boy Gordon Creak which further helps to create that sense of sympathy for the family unit. The opening sequence sees this character talk about all the things he and his dad did before going to the war. Throughout the majority of this film, we see Gordon being extremely optimistic which makes total sense as they would not fully understand the immensity of the situation they are going through.
What is incredibly impressive thing about this film is how they managed to capture the thoughts and feelings of an estranged extended family and specifically the importance of postcards being sent one. As this is such a relatable story (and the fact that world wars are something I have learnt about throughout the majority of my educational journey), every single time a postcard is introduced there is an instant build-up of emotions as this was the only way separated families could stay up to date with their serving relatives. This film highlights not only the importance of postcards home but also the fact that obviously information is limited from soldiers to prevent information being leaked if the letters are intercepted. At one point in the story, Bill stops communicating with his home as a devastating attack has occurred by the enemy forces. This leaves the family unit believing that their father has lost his life and this induces one of the most powerful lines in the entire show where the mother utters the line ““Now there is silence I’m living in hell” which is insanely powerful and obviously portrays the experience of such family’s. During this presumed morning period, Gladys meets another character who talks about recently enlisting and planning to propose to the mother’s niece (siblings’ child) so the mother is overcome with a mixture of emotions as they are proud of this person deciding to fight for the country but equally does not want their niece to go through the same thing they are currently experiencing. This was such a complex mixture of emotions and Marina was able to capture this perfectly in a very powerful and intense scene.
During one of our regular family hangout days, my cousin and I decided to try and convince my younger sister that the aforementioned cousin was not the person they thought they were. We had come up with an elaborate story of how they were in fact a clone and the ‘real’ cousin had gone missing and the person standing in front of them was a clone. Looking back this was very cruel and I do not encourage anyone to do that to family members, but we created fake letters from the missing cousin which included a treasure map to find where they were in the last scene which ended up at the pond we had in our garden. While this was very extreme, I think it is a shared experience tormenting your younger sibling so seeing a similar scene play out during this new musical movie was very nostalgic. There is a sequence in this movie where Gordon sat down with his older brother-figure Johnny (Played amazingly by James A Snow) in their makeshift air raid bunker and the elder of the two songs about how the nazi is going to infiltrate the UK in disguise and we would never be able to know. What was particularly clever about this scene is the fact that both performers sing over each other with contrasting views as the younger of the two basically tried to dispel what the other person was saying. This overlaying of contrasting ideas worked wonderfully with both voices not only sounding great but also capturing that brotherly dynamic many people experience when younger.
As discussed earlier, the movie cleverly uses postcards to help both drive the plot and elicit immense amounts of emotions. The closing sequence of the movie sees a new postcard being delivered that lets the family know that their father Bill is in fact safe which instantly creates an overwhelming sense of relief even for the audience which again shows how cleverly this plot device is used throughout the film. One of my favourite numbers throughout the production came during this sequence as Johnny returns to the screen immediately after the rest of the family unit is informed their father is alive and he delivered an uplifting number about how Bill is continuing to lead the fight against the enemy forces. The musicality of this uplifting sequence worked perfectly as it helped to emphasise how uplifting the speech truly was. I personally think that this is a fantastic way to end the movie as it leaves the audience with some sense of hope which isn’t usually what war-based movies usually portray. While I am aware that these events were a time of immense loss and suffering, seeing a show portray a different type of story not only helps them to stand out but also leaves the audience in a good mood. As also previously discussed this story is based on a true story so I thought it was also very clever to have an end credits scene as the family of the original Bill talks about the real-life experience of living through the story that has just been shown. The audience was also informed that Bill turned ninety-one during the production of this film so paying tribute to the subject of the movie was very important and very powerful!
Overall, a postcard from Bill is an insanely powerful story that many people would be able to not only understand but also relate to. As this is inspired by a true story, it adds an extra layer of emotion as the audience is aware that this is something that actually happened. The clever use of sympathy (due in part to the incredible performances by everyone throughout) and plot devices mean that the audience is instantly transfixed by the movie. I do have to say that due to the the short run time of just ten minutes, the story does move very quickly and I think this production could be fleshed out to really build up the severity of the story being portrayed. I also think that the musical numbers in this movie could be extended as there is enough emotion behind the songs to have fully-fledged, moving tracks! I would rate this production 4.5 stars out of 5!
Rhysreviews 