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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

First World War Movies?


Charley Bourne

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All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930 version is an amazing film for the time. The battle scenes are as good, if not better than Saving Private Ryan
 

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Discussed here

 

There are other threads, in which one member tells us more than once that the 1979 version isn't worth the celluloid on which it's printed - though I never did learn his reasons for saying so. I've just checked as to when he last posted, but it appears that he's been banned - perhaps it was following one of those occasional spats of which I'm mostly unaware.

 

Moonraker

Edited by Moonraker
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After 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (1931) there were no British films that addressed the war in the trenches until 'Oh What a Lovely War' (1969).

So it's a pretty small sub-genre.

 

Ken

 

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'King and Country', about the court martial of Private Hamp was released in 1964. Agreed it's not set in the trenches, but they are essential background.

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On 9/8/2016 at 15:07, Charley Bourne said:

G'day lads,

 

Any ideas about well made movies from the First World War Era? I know a few such as War Horse, but I saw it many times now, I'd like to ask you if you know some movies of the era.

 

Cheerio,

Private Charley Bourne

15th Royal Westshires.

Oh, go on, then. I'll bite.

 

War Horse - describing it as a 'well-made film' is good. It's very well-made. With Spielberg involved, you'd expect it to be well-made. You'd also, rightly, expect it to be saccharine-coated guff. A very well-made film, but what a pile of horse poo.

 

If you want good Great War films, why not try Renoir's masterpiece, La Grande Illusion IMDB link. Available relatively cheaply on DVD (sub'titled). Not a 'war film' as such, but a great film about war.

 

This is pretty damned good, too Westfront 1918 but I've never found an affordable DVD.

 

The movie version of Journey's End IMDB I tracked down through a Forum member a few years ago. Like All Quiet, very much of its time

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Top man. Ta.

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At the risk of provoking more heated discussion, the Australian film 'Beneath Hill 60', while far from perfect, seems to be the most favourably-regarded recent Great War film as far as Forumites are concerned. By contrast, 'Passchendaele' and 'The Red Baron' have attracted almost universal derision. I haven't sat through the whole of the former but 'The Red Baron', a German film made in English (??) is a witless farrago.

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The Hill 60 movie was OK. Passchendaele was appallingly bad - laughably so, in fact. Nice display of Great War Canadian dental technical brilliance, though.

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Here is a list of WW I movies I have found on youtube the good the bad and the awful:

 

Admiral

Aces High

The lost battalion

Passendale

Fraulin Doctor

Nicholas and Alexandra (Parts)

Romanovs an Imperial Family

Shoulder arms

Dobry Vojak Svejk Good Soldier Svejk

She went to war

The Fall of eagles Miniseries

Canakkale 1915

The Trench

The men of Company K 1917-1918

Flight commander

The seas benneath

The spy in Bkack

Lenin in 1918

Chapaev

The sinking of the Lusitania

Battleship potemikn

Rasputin the dark servant of destiny

The last command 1928

White sun of the desertt

October the 10 days that shook the world

lenin the train

March on the Drina

Coward

Rasputin and the Empress

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The first winner of the best picture Oscar, 'Wings' has recently been reissued & is well worth a look, particularly for the scenes of aerial combat.

Plus that fine WW1 novel 'Company K' was filmed some 10 years ago. It's a bit of a curate's egg of a film but the good bits are worth a look.

& wasn't there a Roger Corman film 'Von Richtofen & Brown'?

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