# Any good recent WWI movies/documentaries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058 "2007-04-29T17:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/21 "2007-05-01T02:07:38Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] I’ve got a couple of books to suggest. Paul Fussell’s [The Great War in Modern Memory](http://www.amazon.com/Great-War-Modern-Memory/dp/0195133323/ref=ed_oe_p/104-6060729-8091140?ie=UTF8&qid=1177938273&sr=8-1) 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.” [/QUOTE] TGWAMM is a real classic. I’ve read some other Fussell ( **Wartime** and **The Boys’ Crusade** ) but TGWAMM is the best by far. I also enjoyed Modris Ekstein’s **Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age**. You should also read Robert Massie’s **Castles of Steel** , about the Great War at sea. It’s a sequel to **Dreadnought** , which traces the Anglo-German naval rivalry just before the war. It’s funny how perceptions of movies differ. I saw **Grand Illusion** as showing the end of the class system (as exemplified by the German camp commander and the French staff officer) and the rise of the common man (as exemplified by our hero). ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/22 "2007-05-01T02:09:16Z")
Oh, I forgot: John Ellis’ **Eye-Deep in Hell** gives a very good picture of trench life. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/23 "2007-05-01T02:22:04Z")
Victory at Sea was a great black and white war documentary from just after the war. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/24 "2007-05-01T03:14:33Z")
Wrong war. For WWI, **[The Big Parade](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015624/)** is a pretty good one, and does deal with some of the class issues in **Le Grand Illusion**. Not really about the war, but set in the war is **[King of Hearts](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060908/)** There’s also **[Oh! What a Lovely War](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064754/)**, which is a scathing antiwar satire. It does cover the broad outline of the war fairly accurately, but it is hardly realistic. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/25 "2007-05-01T08:08:42Z")
There’s always _Lawrence of Arabia_, if you feel like leaving the European Front for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/26 "2007-05-10T22:41:31Z")
The BBC are currently screening a series [_The Edwardians in Colour_](http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/albert-kahn.shtml) based on the photography collections of the [Musée Albert Kahn](http://www.hauts-de-seine.net/portal/site/hds/musees/visites-exposition-monuments/sorties-culturelles-92/666/e6b4bf5991fe2010VgnVCM100000860aa8c0RCRD.vhtml) in Paris. Kahn was a rich financier who had created a project to document world cultures using autochromes, a form of colour photography invented by the Lumière brothers. The images are immediate and vivid and, after an introductory programme about Kahn and how the project came about, the series has been using them to illuminate the social history of the early 20th century. Anyway, the episode screened tonight covered WWI, during which Kahn and the French government used his team of photographers to document the French army at war. Since autochromes were too cumbersome to capture battlescenes, they concentrated on capturing the daily life of soldiers. Amazingly intimate colour images of their humdrum routines between battles and the treatment of the wounded. Fleshed out with a good selection of unfamiliar monochrome photos and film, together with experts like Richard Holmes explaining the context of the images, it’s an excellent concise account of France’s war. The whole series can’t be recommended highly enough for anyone with any interest in the period. Extraordinarily good. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/27 "2007-05-10T23:04:27Z")
Thanks bonzer. I’ll see if BBC America is showing it. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058/28 "2007-05-10T23:38:20Z")
Note that the title for the first half of the full nine-part series is a tie-in with the wider season of programmes that BBC4 is currently running on the Edwardian era. The second half, on the Twenties, will presumably have a different name and it really wouldn’t surprise me if any US screening or DVD of the series goes under an entirely different title. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-recent-wwi-movies-documentaries/402058.md?page=1)