The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Casper Wrede has an eye for composition but lacks, as yet, the ability to use it constructively. Irritatingly inconsistent, he tediously over-emphasises that the slightest sound will ruin the initial military operation, and then allows some fairly noisy conversation among the men and staccato drumbeats behind the actual advance. Deprived even of the sort of significance it could so easily have had as the first sound to pierce a perfectly preserved silence, Potter's cry makes little impact ... This is not the fault of Tom Courtenay, who quickly establishes Potter as a credible human being in the grip of something he doesn't understand. This failure to explore its own theme is the most disappointing thing about a potentially interesting film.
Variety wrote: "The young soldier's character is never clearly defined and the film eventually flounders in speculation and conjecture. The screenplay writers, Ronald Harwood and Caspar Wrede (Wrede has also directed with sensitivity but little compulsion) midway lost the courage of any convictions they may have had when sitting down to their typewriters. Courtenay acts with some imagination but it is to be hoped that he is not going to be typed in these psychological roles. Best performance comes from James Maxwell, as his commanding officer."
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Courtenay is utterly convincing, but Ronald Harwood's script is a sermon few actors could survive. Flashy direction doesn't help matters, either."
Leslie Halliwell wrote "Stilted morality play, unpersuasively made and acted." ==References==