Start the week with a film: War and the uplifting power of music in ‘The Choral’

The Choral begins with a howling wind and the sounds of guns going off. World War I is over Europe, and it’s coming for the young of rural England. But not before they sing.

Two cheeky lads from a fictitious town in Yorkshire are sure to be enlisted – after all, the young are cannon fodder, the more political among the two declares. But there’s a more pressing matter. The local choir, of which the youngsters are members, has lost its chorus master – he’s gone off to fight the war.

Opinion is divided on the replacement. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) is gay, an atheist and a Germanophile who has spent years in Germany. Guthrie also isn’t the friendliest of souls.

The choir and Guthrie take some time getting used to one other. When Guthrie’s choice of an oratorio by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach proves to be controversial, he picks the Englishman Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius – upsetting the Anglican choir members since Elgar is Catholic.

Compromise, consensus and art in the time of conflict – Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral (2025) is about much more than the efforts of a choir to carry on amidst carnage. The movie, which can be rented from BookMyShow Stream, is a gently narrated and absorbing exploration of maintaining a sense of community despite individual differences and keeping up hope even as the war wears on.

An observation by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quoted by Guthrie speaks for the film’s intentions: “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

Hytner and writer Alan Bennett emphasise the power of art – in this case, music – to ease the suffering of people and create relationships across class and racial divides. They also slip in a subtle reminder that artists should not be judged by their backgrounds or their personal taste, but by their talent.

Although looking every inch the handsomely produced period drama, The Choral is refreshingly frank about sexual desire, most vivid in the sub-plot of a soldier who has returned from the trenches with a missing hand. While led by Ralph Fiennes, the movie is a team effort, like a choir itself. Fiennes is wonderful, but so is the rest of the cast, which includes Mark Addy and Roger Allam.

All the actors have strong individual scenes that come together in one voice to address the tragedy of war and the inevitability of death. When The Dream of Gerontius is eventually performed, it brings home the horrors of the war to the local residents. The last scene is especially poignant – a facing-the-music moment that also strikes a quiet pacifist note.