Fiction Adaptation: "Anthem for Doomed Youth" Analysis

I am basing my short film on Wilfred Owen's 1917 poem, "Anthem for Doomed Youth. I thought it would be important to look at the words behind it and try to analyse exactly what makes it so well-renowned. 

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

      Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

      The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

The first thing that immediately drew my attention to this particular poem was the title. It is laced in irony that is almost quintessentially British. To me, it almost sounds like a 70's punk song. The way it spells out "doomed" gives the poem an aura of hopelessness and dispair from the very start.

As I keep reading through the poem I realised just how strongly anti-War it was. I get the sense of Owen putting his very heart and soul into his writings. He's basically writing the eulogy of millions of soldiers in a way that could be quite harsh to read, even in 2014. In my opinion he is saying that fighting for Queen and country (which perhaps the title's use of the word anthem refers to) is unnecessary. No one should be subjected to the horrors that war strikes on soldiers and their families. People are getting slaughtered with little reason in the sake of national pride. 

Wilfred Owen.

    For someone like me who is strongly anti-War these are the aspects that appeal to me most of all. As such I feel like it is important to show that all of those deaths were a waste of many, many millions of lives. To show a pro-war sentiment I feel would be very disrespectful to Wilfred Owen's original writings. 

    To conclude with I will also state that I see him as an observer in this poem, rather than an extension of his own persona. As such I also feel this gives it an added gravitas that is not revealed in much poetry. This helps it relate to even young audiences close to 100 years after it was initially written.