A couple weekends ago, one of my kids rented War Horse, and I watched it with him. He's of course a big JRR Tolkien fan, and is familiar with Tolkien's life, including his service with the British army in World War I.
That was something of the impression that I received from War Horse, that it was a bit of Spielberg's desire to film something like the Shire, with a bit of Paths of Glory thrown in. So, while not a bad film, War Horse seemed like a movie which was trying really to be other movies. And this got me thinking about cinema versions of World War I.
The classic World War I flim is of course All Quiet on the Western Front. This is an absolute must see for everyone interested in film, and, most importantly, it's still wonderfully entertaining.
One of the quibbles I have with War Horse is the battle scenes, particularly the cavalry charge seem too unrealistic. Not a problem with AQotWF, as they were advised by actual veterans of the war, plus this being just 1930, they had hew to a rather more realistic presentation as the war would have been well within the living experience of the bulk of the audience.
Here's a 1930s trailer.
AQWF was remade in 1979 in a very credible production starring Richard Thomas as Paul.
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
An absolutely wonderful British film is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). "Colonel Blimp" was a satirical character invented by cartoonist David Lowe, basically a reactionary retired Army officer with a loud voice and a big handlebar moustache who blathers on in a Turkish bath about outlandishly conservative ideas, such as allowing cavalry officers to wear spurs inside tanks.
The film, whose protagonist is named Candy ("Blimp" is only used in the title), turns the lampoon on its head, and shows Candy, outwardly the very model of a Colonel Blimp, to be a patriot, a lover, and a man governed by an old-fashioned sense of honor. The film follows Candy through his life as he adjusts to the modern world of mechanized warfare and processed mass hatred.
Churchill, who always suspected, with some justice, that the Colonel Blimp lampoon was really targeted at him, disapproved of the film. Ostensibly this was because one of its main characters is (an anti-Nazi) German officer. But the film is in fact deeply patriotic. Here is the opening of the film, where Colonel Candy, then a Major General of the Home Army, is relaxing (in a Turkish bath) in preparation for the war maneuvers which are scheduled to start at midnight.
After this, almost the entire film is a flashback. Here is a splendid clip from that film, where Colonel Candy's old friend, the German officer, played by Anton Wolbrook, is interviewed by British immigration:
Here is some of what Roger Ebert said about Colonel Blimp
The most poignant passages involve the general growing older. He looks like a caricature to younger officers--with his beefy face, pink complexion, mustache (grown to hide the dueling scar) and raspy voice. But in his heart he is still young, still in love, still idealistic. At the end of the movie he looks at a water pool in the basement of his bombed-out house, and is reminded of a lake across which he once pledged love. And he insists to himself that it is the same lake, and he is the same man. Rarely does a film give us such a nuanced view of the whole span of a man's life. Is is said that the child is father to the man. "Colonel Blimp" makes poetry out of what the old know but the young do not guess: The man contains both the father, and the child.
The Grand Illusion
The Grand Illusion, which, rather accurately, portrays the war as a huge
Titanic disaster on scale 1000 times greater, which drags down the Edwardian aristocratic class which had previously governed all the warring countries. One hears the term perhaps overmuch, but
The Grand Illusion really is a masterpiece, well worth watching. This is also a patriotic movie, but one which emphasizes the common nature of people, even if their countries are at war. Here is the original trailer for the film:
American productions -- inadequate?
American films about World War 1 tended, in a word, to suck. Howard Hawks made Sergeant York (1941), which portrayed Alvin York, who was actually a rather complicated and interesting man, as a hayseed but a natural if reluctant warrior.
David O. Selznick, looking for a blockbuster to match his Gone With the Wind, produced A Farewell to Arms. Based on the Hemingway novel, the story had been filmed before, in a 1932 production starring Gary Cooper.
While the photography and overall production values are good, the love story starring wooden-faced Rock Hudson, and Selznick's wife, Jennifer Jones just isn't very believable or even interesting. The best scenes are of the Italian army (this was the actual 1950s Italian army) advancing through the mountains, and the retreat of the same army following the 1917 disaster at Caporetto, which nearly knocked Italy out of the war.
Despite starring the usually interesting George Peppard, the The Blue Max is rather forgettable unless you are into trick flying photography, in which case this is your movie.
I've limited my comments to films I've actually seen -- one I haven't seen was Johnny Got His Gun (1971). I did read Dalton Trumbo's 1938 novel on which it was based, which I highly recommend.
One good American film that was not so much about the Great War, but rather set in it was of course The African Queen, which, if you love Humphrey Bogart or Katherine Hepburn (and who doesn't?), is absolutely your film.
David Lean's one big flop.
David Lean's Ryan's Daughter, although beautifully filmed on location in Ireland, has a magnificent score, and a number of excellent actors, ultimately turns out to be a failure.
I recommend you avoid this film at all costs, but if you do find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to watch this, you may well ask yourself:
"What kind of a casting decision led to then 29 year Sarah Miles being cast as a 16 year old virgin school girl and Robert ("Cape Fear") Mitchem as a kindly widowed Irish grammar school teacher?"
Despite a big budget and a justly world-famous director,
Ryan's Daughter remains a hack re-write of
Madame Bovary, a role for which Sarah Miles was much better suited. I recommend instead an actual
Madame Bovary film
the excellent 1949 production of Flaubert's great classic. Van Heflin, always a reliable actor, gives a great performance in this film as Charles Bovary, who was basically the same character (transported to Ireland) played by Robert Mitchem in
Ryan's Daughter.
Paths of Glory
Also made in 1957, the same year as A Farewell to Arms was the infinitely better Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas in what may have been his best performance, with the possible exception of the splendid Lonely Are the Brave. Paths of Glory, based on a 1935 was an absolutely stunning production, and so powerful that it was banned in France and Spain for many years. Here is the original trailer.
Lawrence of Arabia
Of course the best film of World War I, and possibly one of the best films ever made, was Lawrence of Arabia (1962). While full of historical inaccuracies, it is one of the most magnificent experiences ever. You must see this film on the big screen. I did in 1989 and I remember that to this day. Here is Steven Spielberg giving a detailed commentary on the film, with some extremely interesting remarks, particularly about film and history.
The Australian productions
Several Australian films were made about the First World War, most notably Gallipoli (1980) starring Mel Gibson in his pre-drunken anti-Semite days. I would skip all these however and recommend instead Breaker Morant, which, while set in the Boer War some 20 years before WWI, covers issues which are still relevant today, maybe even more so than in 1980 when the movie was made. Acting, writing, production values, cinematography are all excellent, emblematic of the late 70's / early 80's explosion of wonderful films from Australia such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).
In this scene from Breaker Morant, an accused officer, played by the great English actor and singer Edward Woodward, when asked by what rule prisoners were executed during operations on the veldt, replies that they were shot pursuant to "Rule 303", that is the rule of the .303 Lee-Enfield repeating rifle:
Breaker Morant is as powerful a film as The Battle of Algiers (1966), and like TBoA, it must be seen by modern audiences, particularly since our own colonial wars now appear to be stretching infinitely into the future.
Well, that's all I have for now. What do you think?
Pax.