Coward

New Showbiz Analysis

Lukas Dhont’s *Coward* opens in the mud of the Belgian trenches, where the standard currency of World War I is blood and obedience. Here, the camera finds a different economy: two young men, Pierre and Francis, trading glances and sketches instead of orders. The film’s argument is that in a world defined by industrial slaughter, the only true bravery is the refusal to harden. It sells a vision where tenderness is a radical act, positioning the personal over the political. The narrative challenges the traditional war film’s focus on heroism by making the "cowardice" of feeling a moral victory. The camera lingers on their hands and faces, treating their intimacy as a sanctuary against the surrounding brutality. This is not a story about winning the war, but about surviving it with one’s humanity intact. The ending, implied by the "hopeful" critical consensus, suggests that their bond outlasts the conflict, offering a quiet rebuttal to the era’s rigid codes of masculinity and duty.