To be quite honest, I am sick of hearing about WWII. Yes, yes it was the ultimate good vs evil. It makes for great plots all over the place. On the other hand, WWI was really the begining of modern warfare. It’s the first time that I know of where modern artillary and machine guns were used. They even had some use of airplanes. Also, the great flu epidemic started there. I can’t imagine what that war would have been like. That is why I want to see it.
I love the way the History Channel has done Band of Brothers. It seems very real, and I can get a peripheral sense of what WWII was like on the German front. Is there anything remotely similar for WWI?
A Very Long Engagement is pretty good (though a decidedly mixed bag), but the best parts are easily the scenes on the front and soldier-related material, and the recreation of period detail is absolutely extraordinary.
I never saw it, but **Joyeux Noël** got generally good reviews and was inspired by a true incident in WWI.
Both films are in French, if that makes a difference to you.
The Military Channel has been showing the documentary miniseries The First World War (2003) off and on for a while now.
A good alternative look at several different aspects of the Great War, while perhaps a bit weak on the history we all know about it. Actually, I think that’s what they tried to do, focus on the largely untold (or not told in great detail) things to supplement our basic knowledge of WWI.
However, the best sources about WW1 remains books. It’s a fascinating subject for everybody has a different take as to how the war happened and progressed the way it did.
We just recently watched the fourth Black Adder series, set in WWI. Certainly far from a documentary, but the sixth and final episode actually drove home some great points about the ludicrousness of the whole war.
Yes, exactly. And if you watch the first five episodes, you’ll really feel a poignant twinge at the end when they go over the top, and then you see the field of poppies as it looks today. Or in 1989 when they filmed it.
I have to recommend Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy, particularly the first one (titled, naturally, Regeneration), and the film adaptation (called “Regeneration” in the UK and “Behind the Lines” in the US). You can get the latter from Netflix.
The Grand Illusion deserves its reputation as a classic. It’s about two French fliers who are shot down and captured by the Germans and eventually escape. Although I have to say that it’s not so much about World War I as it is about human weakness and courage in general. It has some of the most finely drawn characters of any movie I’ve ever watched.
We haveThe Grand Illusion on DVD. A great film. It really points out that unlike WWII, which was good versus evil, class won out in WWI. An upper-class French prisoner could be afforded certain privileges by his upper-class captor, because after all “You’re one of us,” that sort of thing.
View both versions of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front.’ The technical spectical of the battle scenes in the first version has never been topped, in my opinion. Add to that some of those machine gun crew extras were actual veterans…
The later version (made for TV) one is also excellent and has much better acting.
The Great War is probably the best documentary out there.
ANZACs is decent, it gives the idea of crater-hopping warfare. (Much of the well built trenches were smashed at cetain times late in the war)
As mentioned, avoid FlyBoys. Its one scene of trench warfare is ludicrous and downright insulting. Its CGI air fights leave much to be desired.
The Lost Battallion is ‘OK’. Properly Grim but very Amerocentric.
For Air war, view The Blue Max, Richtoffen and Brown, Wings, Hell’s Angels. None of these are perfect, but they are acceptable.
Paul Fussell’s The Great War in Modern Memory shows how that war affected culture. The War Poets are mentioned–but the effects were broader. For example: Delicing was a common, dehumanizing procedure. Hence modern usage of “lousy.”
Mark Helprin’s A Soldier of the Great War covers aspects of the Italian effort. They were Allies in that war. It’s also a great novel in human terms.
The Great War has been neglected in recent films. It’s a tremendous story–or stories. Perhaps Hollywood doesn’t consider it “inspiring” enough?
Mata Hari with Sylvia Krystal is pretty awful, no historical accuracy at all. In fact, after you fast-forward to the topless fencing duel, you might as well just turn off the DVD machine.
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] A Very Long Engagement is pretty good (though a decidedly mixed bag), but the best parts are easily the scenes on the front and soldier-related material, and the recreation of period detail is absolutely extraordinary.
QUOTE]
How wrong are you? The best part is getting to see Audrey Tautou’s naked butt!
And if you watch the first five episodes, you’ll really feel a poignant twinge at the end when they go over the top, and then you see the field of poppies as it looks today. Or in 1989 when they filmed it.