Best Brit WWI Film?

[christoph404]

My idea of a good war film is one that not only shows the bravery of those involved but also makes a comment on the sheer futility and waste of young lives involved in war, especially in WW1. Er....sorry to diverse from the WW2 theme!!

"King and Country"
with Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde is brilliant in this WW1 trench warfare story as a sympathetic and sensitive officer who has to carry out the needless execution of a young man from his own side. Very moving and harrowing.

"Paths of Glory"
On a similar theme this time from the French point of view, Kirk Douglas is superb and the film is one of Kubrick's best in my opinion. It was banned in France for years.

"Aces High"
again WW1, superb acting from all involved and splendid arial photography. As well as focusing on the bravery of the young men it also relates how they bond together as friends and develop as men from naieve young flyers and how they cope with the deaths of their comrades. You should all have this one as it was part of the Daily Mail giveaway!

[Steve Crook]

"The Spy in Black"
Conrad Veidt stars in a tale about a German WWI submariner trying to attack the British home fleet at Scapa Flow.
Released in August 1939, it was helped by the real attack early in World War II, on October 14, 1939, when U-47, under the command of Günther Prien, penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the old battleship HMS Royal Oak anchored in Scapa Bay.

But the film itself was set in WWI, no mention of Nazis, plenty of futility

Steve

[billy bentley]

I haven't seen this in donkey's years, how does it hold up ?

Also I have memories of Tom Courtney as a trench warfare deserter, I think it was mostly in voice over. What was it ?

[CaptainWaggett]

Originally Posted by billy bentley I haven't seen this in donkey's years, how does it hold up ? Also I have memories of Tom Courtney as a trench warfare deserter, I think it was mostly in voice over. What was it ?

King and Country

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by billy bentley "Oh What A Lovely War" still lovely ? I haven't seen this in donkey's years, how does it hold up ?

It's still lovely, still wryly funny, still shocking

Steve

[batman]

The 39 Steps (Powell version) ... an exciting 'Boy's Own' type thriller set just before WWI.

The Spy In Black is also a good choice, very tense and atmospheric. Both films contain excellent performances.

[penfold]

Journey's End filmed in the States because of the lack of sound stages here, but it's a British cast and director, and is one of the best of the early sound films....there is a German remake, incidentally, starring Conrad Veidt as Stanhope, and once you get past the British officers clicking their heels, is also extrememly powerful.

Suspense another early sound film, Walter Summers directs, a psychological thriller take on Journey's End....fantastic, rarely seen film. Hay Petrie steals the picture as the BEF veteran who has seen it all....

A Couple of Down and Outs (Walter Summers again, 1923)a silent, set in the immediate Post-War period, 1919/20; an unemployed ex-serviceman, fresh from the first Cenotaph Remembrance ceremony, trawls around the London docks looking for work. The service medal ribbons on his cardigan are no currency. Rejected again, he sees a consignment of horses awaiting shipment to Belgium...we're intended to see that this will be a one-way journey....to the kitchens of Europe. The horses bear the War Department brand; a docker (via intertitile) comments that the human veterans aren't being cared for properly, did he imagine the equine veterans would be better treated ? As he sees the line of animals boarding, he recognises a scarred flank...his mount from the Horse Artillery Troop.... and the veterans go on the run..... Cheaply made, and occasionally showing it, it's incredibly moving.....and more than a bit political.

The Battle Of The Somme IMO the greatest of them all. The original feature documentary, released to the cinemas while the fighting continued. You will have seen many clips from it in other documentary over the years, but the original has a power and a dignity that still inspires huge emotions 90 years later. The montage sequence of the war dead still shocks and silences; and while it is propaganda, it is very subtle and far from the flag-waving you might expect. We're planning on presenting this on the big screen here in Bristol this November, with a reconstruction of the original score, and possibly a rarely-screened Roll of Honour film. I will let you know if this comes off nearer the time....it's an opportunity not to be missed, trust me.

[dylan]

Originally Posted by christoph404 My idea of a good war film is one that not only shows the bravery of those involved but also makes a comment on the sheer futility and waste of young lives involved in war, especially in WW1. Er....sorry to diverse from the WW2 theme!! "King and Country" with Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde is brilliant in this WW1 trench warfare story as a sympathetic and sensitive officer who has to carry out the needless execution of a young man from his own side. Very moving and harrowing. "Paths of Glory" On a similar theme this time from the French point of view, Kirk Douglas is superb and the film is one of Kubrick's best in my opinion. It was banned in France for years.

Bogarde, as an ex-officer himself, found that the dialogue he was handed in King and Country was inaccurate and unconvincing so he re-wrote his part.

Paths of Glory was a US film. Douglas wanted Kubrick to change the ending so that the prisoners were reprieved at the last minute.

D.

[A Pemberton]

"Regeneration"(1997) is worth a mention, the book too is excellent,anything that brings the horror of war and the poems and writings of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen and their suffering to a new generation is to be commended.

[donna]

know it s not British but made out to be Random Harvest , when he was in the army hospital suffering from shell shock, loved that film

[Rob Compton]

Originally Posted by penfold Journey's End filmed in the States because of the lack of sound stages here, but it's a British cast and director, and is one of the best of the early sound films....there is a German remake, incidentally, starring Conrad Veidt as Stanhope, and once you get past the British officers clicking their heels, is also extrememly powerful. Suspense another early sound film, Walter Summers directs, a psychological thriller take on Journey's End....fantastic, rarely seen film. Hay Petrie steals the picture as the BEF veteran who has seen it all.... A Couple of Down and Outs (Walter Summers again, 1923)a silent, set in the immediate Post-War period, 1919/20; an unemployed ex-serviceman, fresh from the first Cenotaph Remembrance ceremony, trawls around the London docks looking for work. The service medal ribbons on his cardigan are no currency. Rejected again, he sees a consignment of horses awaiting shipment to Belgium...we're intended to see that this will be a one-way journey....to the kitchens of Europe. The horses bear the War Department brand; a docker (via intertitile) comments that the human veterans aren't being cared for properly, did he imagine the equine veterans would be better treated ? As he sees the line of animals boarding, he recognises a scarred flank...his mount from the Horse Artillery Troop.... and the veterans go on the run..... Cheaply made, and occasionally showing it, it's incredibly moving.....and more than a bit political. The Battle Of The Somme IMO the greatest of them all. The original feature documentary, released to the cinemas while the fighting continued. You will have seen many clips from it in other documentary over the years, but the original has a power and a dignity that still inspires huge emotions 90 years later. The montage sequence of the war dead still shocks and silences; and while it is propaganda, it is very subtle and far from the flag-waving you might expect. We're planning on presenting this on the big screen here in Bristol this November, with a reconstruction of the original score, and possibly a rarely-screened Roll of Honour film. I will let you know if this comes off nearer the time....it's an opportunity not to be missed, trust me.

Mark, you always manage to whet my appetite for the silent films you mention - but where, apart from Bristol, can we see them? A BFI release would be great...

rgds
Rob

[penfold]

Originally Posted by Rob Compton Mark, you always manage to whet my appetite for the silent films you mention - but where, apart from Bristol, can we see them? A BFI release would be great... rgds Rob

I think the IWM is preparing The Battle of The Somme for release....it has very recently been restored. I am surprised that Journey's End isn't out on DVD....I'm sure someone here will have it from a TV showing...the other two are very rare....and relatively obscure. Suspense I saw when a new print was being checked when I happened to be in the BFI researching; A Couple of Down and Outs at a silent film festival; I'm not even sure the BFI have a copy, I'm fairly sure the copy was found in Holland by the Nederland Filmmuseum.
Anyway, in the case of silent films, they have to be seen live for the full effect; watching at home isn't the same thing at all. Would you like a list of festivals??

[Marky B]

Just a suggestion:
The Cockney Spirit in the War No. 2 (1930)
Ta Ta
Marky B

[homeguard]

Can anything beat the short films shot by who?, that record the results of that war - from the shell-shocked and physically maimed, to the everyday tedium of life behind the line. Unfortunately in an historical sense, the Somme, as shown in the official film of the time, was padded-out with re-enactments. Tragic none-the-less. Strangely, my father, who went to Belgium in 1917, only mentioned a couple of his experiences. Best film ever has to be the series shown by the Beeb - The Great War. Second could be mine - if I can find somebody to make it!!!

Regards,
HG

[Steve Crook]

I presume you all know that the classic "documentary" scene of the troops "going over the top" where one of them is shot immediately and slips back down into the trench and another is a bit slow stepping over the barbed wire and seems to be left behind after his comrades have disappeared into the smoke - that was all filmed some time after any real battle.

Steve