Sassoon’s poetry described the horrors of trench warfare while also satirizing those who perpetuated the ideology that perpetuated the war. His dissent eventually landed him a stint in military psychiatric hospital where he formed close bond fellow war poet Wilfred Owen.
Good Acting?
You don’t really have to go into that with the actors, because they already know it. The great thing with really good actors is that, like virtuosi who plays violin or piano, you just say one thing, and they do it. You think: how did they get it that quickly? Astonishing. That was the most revelatory. That they get it so quickly.
Sassoon looking for Catholicism late in life?
He wanted redemption, and nothing can give you that. Certainly, religion can’t. You have to find that within yourself, or you don’t find it at all. I think that’s what he was looking for. And of all the religions to wander into, the most guilt ridden is certainly a strange choice.
What kind of redemption?
I think in a sort of odd way, to be forgiven, but not for anything specific. Something wider. He did survive the First World War. Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen didn’t. He saw, to a certain extent, his work eclipsed by them, because death does confer on you some kind of special honor. I think that hurt him. But when you’re looking for something that will balm your soul, would you ever find it? I don’t think anybody does. You either have that or you don’t. I’ve been looking for it for 76 years now and I’ve never found it.