MartH Posted 5 November , 2014 Share Posted 5 November , 2014 I have watched all three episodes so far.. granted there are many "Wrong Bits" My view is, well done BBC. !!! I have been a member of this forum for the last 12 months and have read some epic threads. I have been able to take some great leads to help me with my family history. I think this series is excellent and I would challenge any person to put "The Great War" over in 5 30 minutes TV slots. Speilberg, Cameron and those types may do a better job but would charge you many Millions !!! And yet the finest program ever done on the Great War is in 30 minute TV slots, and 50 years ago the nation was riveted to it. I often wonder why such rubbish was not produced for the 50, or 60, or 75, or 80, or 90 universality and then realised the reason, no Great War Veterans, to laugh, ridicule, complain, and embarrass the producers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Feledziak Posted 5 November , 2014 Share Posted 5 November , 2014 And yet the finest program ever done on the Great War is in 30 minute TV slots, and 50 years ago the nation was riveted to it. I often wonder why such rubbish was not produced for the 50, or 60, or 75, or 80, or 90 universality and then realised the reason, no Great War Veterans, to laugh, ridicule, complain, and embarrass the producers. Granted that I was three at the time, what was it called - If it was the 60's Great War produced by the BBC, I have the 26 episode DVD set, which also is excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron da Valli Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 BBC Four are showing the fist two episodes of the sixties series Great War this Sunday (9th November) at 7pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 Time then for someone to start a new thread to comment on it! No doubt someone will spot a film clip of a unit purportedly at a particular battle when in fact it was 200 miles away! Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Watch Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 I thought this was about as accurate as Blackadder but not nearly so entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevem49 Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 Artistic licence - is that another name for C***p? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss002d6252 Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 I did wonder the escape attempt was actually to get away from the show... Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripeyman Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 Another fantasy episode tonight. utter tosh.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 IMHO......A very poor effort that saw me watch the first episode but none of the others....Bored me to death. Just my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartH Posted 6 November , 2014 Share Posted 6 November , 2014 I did wonder the escape attempt was actually to get away from the show... Craig Very funny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ServiceRumDiluted Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 (edited) I'll register my approval. I don't think the users of this forum are really the target audience. I think there was enough attention to detail to make it convincing enough (no Mk4 Lee Enfield's etc) but it is a TV programme made now and presumably has to make reality bend to dramatic, financial and time pressures. It, and many programmes like it, to not pretend to be a precise history lesson. A 'realistic' programme on the life of a soldier would probably be about 90% digging, carrying and getting VD (no disrespect meant to the soldiers, but it did happen!) and would possibly not include more action than a few distant shell bursts and a stand-to. Great TV! Even though it might get the critical approval of forum dwellers. The overwhelming impression I got from it was that this was aimed at younger people weaned on Call of Duty to show that war chews up young men and spits them out, you don't 'respawn', leaving families guessing, hungry and anxious. A far more important aim I think, particularly this week, than appeasing the technical pedants. Edited 7 November , 2014 by ServiceRumDiluted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 I've come to the conclusion that very little of the output, whether TV, radio or printed, in connection with the Centenary has any real value, but as Muriel Spark said, through the lips of Miss Jean Brodie, "For the people who like that sort of thing, that's exactly the sort of thing they'll like". It's the Great War as soap opera. If you like it, watch it. I don't so I won't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 Lost interest with it after 10 minutes, although my Daughter thought that a lot of the men were R ( unprintable) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartH Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 I think I have a slightly different experience of this program to most, I watch it with my 91 year old mother, whose brain is as sharp as ever and she experienced trench warfare on the North Russian Front as well as the fearsome Russian attacks as a young 20/21 nurse. She watches it because I'm interested and she lives with me now. She was not brought up on British history/mythology, they had their own brand in Finland. But there is an amusing two part dialogue going on, me explaining British history like the Somme was when the volunteers first got to fight en mass. And her going, that's not like wounded, not enough blood and screaming, that's not like a hospital after an attack your overrun with badly damaged young men in horrible pain and sometimes there is nothing you can do as they wait for treatment, where's the agony of triage, why aren't the nurses exhausted? Some of this she says in Swedish, translation is mine. As ever she had the final say last night "do you really want to watch this rubbish, its fantasy". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anneca Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 MartH - I do love your Mother - good for her! Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick63 Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 For all it`s faults I found the last 30 seconds incredibly moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Standard Bearer Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 For all it`s faults I found the last 30 seconds incredibly moving. Me too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRANVILLE Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 From the outset I have felt the drama was exceptionally well put together and my view has not been swayed by the continuing criticisms of several who seem happy to keep watching it just to pull it down. By virtue of it's time-slot, it has clearly been put together to capture the widest possible audience and I only wish I had had something WW1 related which was half as watchable when I had been a youth. Despite all the pointed out failings, attention to detail has been exceptional and I remain very happy that any one of the scenarios portrayed in the series of programmes may well have been played out for real during the course of the war. I say, well done to all who worked on it. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffsyeoman Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 As soon as I heard it was written by Tony Jordan - thumbs up for creating Hustle, two thumbs down for the miseryfest that is East Enders - I thought I would give it a wide berth. Seems this was wise.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBI Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 Re Passing Bells..The Great War sanitised,dumbed down,and tweaked for Joe Public...Does anyone remember the 2 part Drama The Monocled Mutineer starring Paul McGann ? far more gritty and uncompromising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trev2386 Posted 7 November , 2014 Share Posted 7 November , 2014 For my two Penneth, I, like most on this topic, sat through them all and was a bit disgruntled at the "artistic license" with the accuracies etc. However, my lad and wifey watched them with real intent. They wanted to get an insight into the emotional side of the participants, to capture a small part of the futility of war, to sense the worry and grief of the families and, at the end, the sadness of loss. They weren't interested in helmet numbers for the German regiments, that they were issued with uniforms at the moment of joining, or anything like that. She didn't cry as much at this as she did at the end of Black Adder, but it was emotional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaner13 Posted 8 November , 2014 Share Posted 8 November , 2014 My ten year old and five year old son watched and enjoyed it,my teenage son thought it was unrealistic,I found it pretty much a load of garbage,although like some have posted already the last minute or so was quite moving. I've been really disappointed with what has been churned out so far,regarding the great war programming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartH Posted 8 November , 2014 Share Posted 8 November , 2014 From the outset I have felt the drama was exceptionally well put together and my view has not been swayed by the continuing criticisms of several who seem happy to keep watching it just to pull it down. By virtue of it's time-slot, it has clearly been put together to capture the widest possible audience and I only wish I had had something WW1 related which was half as watchable when I had been a youth. Despite all the pointed out failings, attention to detail has been exceptional and I remain very happy that any one of the scenarios portrayed in the series of programmes may well have been played out for real during the course of the war. I say, well done to all who worked on it. David The whole point of this forum it to allow frank and free discussion, it is not done to pull it down. I regret to say the attention to detail has not been exceptional the hospital scenes are fantasy. That's not from me but a veteran of trench warfare who survived more intense bombardments than those of Verdun or the Somme, and later on suffered a serious injure and has disability later being treated with BoB guinea pigs, so it's from one has treated it and latter suffered similar injuries and knows it personally. Perhaps the reason there were not programs as watchable as this in our youth because if the had produced programs like this the Great War Veterans would have complained. I will finish with a comment from mum "war is really terrible in what it does to young men, especially when its cold, it should try to be realist so no one is under any illusion". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paullaw1155 Posted 8 November , 2014 Share Posted 8 November , 2014 For all of its poetic licence it was watchable, My wife enjoyed it more than myself, And it was aimed at as wide as possible audience. Considering that the soldiers portrayed where British,(with the excepttion of the Germans) Was the cemetery in the closing second an American cemetery? Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart150 Posted 8 November , 2014 Share Posted 8 November , 2014 I noticed several distinct ‘levels of reality’: Level 1: Straightforward Real: eg hand-to-hand fighting between German and Russian soldiers Level 2: Real but Exceptional: ie something that very probably did happen but only as an exceptional case; it was not normal: eg the recruits getting their uniforms straight away and arriving in the trenches before the end of 1914 Level 3: Exceptional/Fantasy: as Level 2 (ie it did happen but was exceptional), but stylised in a way that is manifestly fantastic; eg the soldiers mingling to collect the wounded – exceptional because it was not what normally happened, and fantasy for part of the time because of the choreographed movements of the soldiers. Level 4: Fantasy: manifestly unrealistic; eg the scene at the end with opposing soldiers going off together. The above is offered as a piece of objective analysis, not value judgement. I am not saying that any drama about the Great War that mixes different levels of reality in that way is necessarily a bad or necessarily a good thing. So what about this particular multi-reality-level drama? The producers seem to be expecting this drama to engage people, particularly young people, who know little about the Great War, and many of the comments on this and other message boards confirm that. But is a drama constructed with such complex levels of reality a good way of educating that audience? I don’t think so, because I doubt that many of them have the knowledge and judgement to differentiate between the different levels, and thus to distinguish between the producers’ creativity and the actual experiences of most soldiers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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