As an outgrowth of this thread, I got to thinking about depictions of World War I in popular culture. These days, they’re kind of scant. Top of mind, for some reason, is that lengthy scene in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown where Snoopy, shot down by the Red Baron, is sneaking back through the devastation of northern France to get back to his… Halloween party.
There have been some famous movies about World War I – All Quiet on the Western Front, La Grand Illusion (neither of which I’ve seen) – but nothing like there have been for World War II. Books, there’s the aforementioned All Quiet on the Western Front, some of the war poets, and I can’t remember what-all else.
In short, I don’t see that much out there, popular-culture wise, given the magnitude of the war. What am I overlooking?
There were quite a few movies in the 20s and 30s where the war was portrayed. Offhand, there was The Big Parade, The Dawn Patrol, Shoulder Arms, and The Roaring Twenties (opening scenes). However, once WWII started, Hollywood focused on that, and WWI was given short shrift.
The Blue Max is one post-WWII version of WWI.
There were a few films that used WWI as a basis for a modern antiwar stance. Two excellent ones were Oh! What a Lovely War (which made the war into a British music hall comedy for satiric effect) and King of Hearts (which made the point that war is madness).
As I mentioned in the other WWI thread, Lawrence of Arabia is a WWI film, but in the African theater. So is The African Queen and Sergeant York. I also mentioned that there are few “adventure” war films for WWI, but one notable exception would be Wings.
Though it covers several wars, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is most moving in its WWI segment.
Probably the most memorable musical artifacts of WWI are those by George M. Cohan: “You’re a Grand Old Flag”, “Yankee Doodle Boy”, “Over There”. Cohan, of course, was also mythologized in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms also remains one of the most important WWI books, and it was also made into a popular film in the 1930s. In Flanders Fields is probably the best-known poem from the period.
RickJay corrected me in the other thread that LoA takes place in what one would mostly consider Asia now (though there are some scenes in Egypt). I also wanted to clarify that York is another WWI film, not one that takes place outside of Europe.
The WWI poets used to be a staple of English classes in British schools. They may well still be. For novels, I’d recommend Pat Barkers Regeneration series and Sebastian Faulks Birdsong.
I second that recommendation – these are fantastic books, particularly the first one (Regeneration itself), which I’m currently reading again for maybe the fourth time. It’s also been made into a movie with Jonathan Price and Jonny Lee Miller, released under this same title in the UK and under the title “Behind the Lines” in the US. Also very good.
I’m embarrassed to be adding this one, but the Brad Pitt vehicle Legends of the Fallcontains a scene where the three brothers fight in the trenches of WWI.
There is also a BBC documentary called The Great War which was made in 1964 and consists of 26 half hour episodes. A very moving and instructive series.
I just finished The Officer’s Ward by Marc Dugain, last night. It’s a very short, just devastating novel about a French officer wounded on the first day of the war and his experiences in the maxillofacial ward of the hospital where he spent the rest of it. Both a horrifying and fascinating book, which I think is based on one of Dugain’s family members.
I understand it’s also a movie. Must be painful to watch.