WWI Movie Recommendations

what Michael says above is perfectly correct..WW1 flying films are not much good as a reference..added to which the sound is tinny, the pictures scratchy and the acting hammy.
but guess who went out and baught a copy of Dawn Patrol to-day...coz I lerv it to bits

dagadagadagadagadagadagadagadagadagadagadagadagada gadagadaga

Peter

Stephen, next time you find yourself in an Aussie pub don't call the Lighthorse "British". You'll find yourself in a blue quick smart.

The main reason for wanting to find films on this subject is to get a better understanding for the equipment and feel of the environments during the war. I fully understand the inaccuracies conveyed by film and I plan to exercise the utmost in discretion in allowing myself to be influenced. Dialogue is also important. I'm not British but my character is, so it would help to learn a little of the slang lingo of the day. Most importantly, I want to see the planes themsleves in flight. I plan on ordering Four Years of Thunder - the History Channel special on WWI Aviation. My understanding is that this program is a fantastic resource for information.

It's really time for a WWI film done with the accuracy and feel of 'Saving Private Ryan'. If it was me, I'd do a film on the VERDUN Offensive of 1916, or the Somme bloodbath. It's amazing no one has yet recognized the potential and importance of an epic film on WWI. It's as forgotten a war as the Korean Conflict.

Chris

[stephen]

Chris: Lingo? Someone in your story absolutely must have the "wind up."

Greg: You be right. I be wrong. I be thanking you.

I don't think WWI aviation films will be much good as a source of aviators' slang, since they will have been largely cleaned up to suit the censors. (A noteable exception is "Hell's Angels," in which Hughes somehow got microphones into that Sikorsky to record the two stars cursing a blue streak as their plane is attacked.)

I don't think films will prove a workable shortcut to just plain hard work in the research department. My suggestion is that you write your first draft with the information you've been able to gather, and then do research to fill in only the needed details when you revise. At that point, you'll be able to ask specific questions, which will allow you to find specific answers (possibly even from this forum).

I don't think that WWI provides sufficiently epic scope to make a "Private Ryan" type film. The personnel spent so much time just standing around being shot at that it's hard to conceive of how you could open up the story. (And Stanley Kubrick has already made the definitive film about how wasteful that all was.)

Another movie which is a must is " the great Waldo Pepper "

It tabulates the barnestormers in 1919 - 1925 and the changing of the guard from the war flyers to the new standards of commercial flight. It is represented metaphorically by the main star and his german antogonist ( Kessler ) wanting to fight to the death without guns cos it was the way the wanted to fly and live and die. Fascinating themes in it and several good chuckles on the way.

cam

Chris, if you seak an understanding of the British, or in this case more correctly English, class system as it was 80 years ago you face a mammoth task..Those of us who live here don't understand it now!
In fact this was the premise of the BBC series "Wings" mentioned elsewhere. Our rough hewn hero, the son of a Cornish blacksmith, struggles to fit in with his gentlelmanly comrades.. The Beeb had 12 hours to develope this conflict within a conflict, Gone With The Wind only lasts 4!
Maybe you should dust off your library card. Watch Aces High by all means, then read Journeys End on which it is (very loosely)based. I don't mean to go off at a tangent, but how about Fighter Pilot by Richard Hilary. Although about a Hurricane outfit during the fall of Franc it has a very WW1 feel to it..
annybody else read any good books lately

Peter L

A definite must for the proper "dreary frame of mind", because basically that is what stagnate trench warfare perpetuates, is the acclaimed PBS series "The Great War". It is a documentary that depicts as much the effect on the human psyche as the battles themselves. It can be downright depressing, like listening to Sinead O'Connor or reading your Visa statement. I dont believe it is in rental stores yet but it retails for about $100(4 tapes) in most Borders or Barnes & Noble booksellers.

[Vigilant]

Michael, WWI "not epic enough"?? How epic do you want! Think about a full-scale offencive along a 10 mile front, involving hundreds of thousands of men, with a vast weight of metal crashing down over their heads as the barrage goes in, and the bloody murder as the opposing troops come into contact at strongpoints and push through them. And occassionally a suicidal aeroplane will fly through the shells over the battle on a contact patrol....

Peter, I've read "The Last Enemy". Good book but I found Hillary a bit of a pain. Maybe I'm just jealous!? My favourite aviation writer is Saint-Exupery. Sheer poetry.

[rammjaeger]

Hi Chris. The most of these movies are not very reliable, but always better than this HORROR FILM WITH THE RED BARON, which I have seen some years ago. In this video MvR was shoot down and his ghost transfered into a toy aircraft 60 or 70 years later. And than this hun-occupied toy aircraft started to terrorize the family of a little boy! Nonsens³!

Regards Hannes Taeger