WWI Movie Recommendations

Vigilant:
My comment about WWI not being "epic" enough was probably ill-judged. Certainly its scope was epic. But I try to imagine a "Private Ryan" scenario, and it doesn't work. My overwhelming impression of WWI in the trenches is one of claustrophobia; even the assaults crammed large numbers of men into small frontal areas, where mobility was virtually non-existent. Imagine the first 20 minutes of "Private Ryan" repeated over and over for two hours: it doesn't work for me. (I think WWI is best remembered in the verse and memoirs of the War Poets -- Graves, Blunden, Sassoon, even Lewis, who though not a poet managed some remarkable imagery in "Saggitarius Rising." If you haven't done so, I recommend reading "The Great War and Modern Memory" by Paul Fussell.)

[Barrett]

I'll endorse the sentiments expressed here regarding ANZACs and "The Light Horsemen"--very entertaining films with a high degree of technical authenticity. However, ANZACs ends on 11 November with sunshine and daffodils!

John Ford's "What Price Glory?" with James Cagney and Dan Dailey is, well, typical Ford. Great characters with a salty aspect of the dedicated professional soldiers (in this case marines) doing what they do best.

A long-ago TV miniseries (mid 70s?) was "Once An Eagle" based on the Anton Meyer novel. The young Sam Elliot knew how to work an '03 Springfield.

I can completely envision a WWI film in league with Saving Private Ryan. A film opening with the massive German assault on Verdun would be a horrendous scene. Wave after wave of Hun infantry charging over the snow covered moonscape toward the French positions with a hailstorm of artillery raining down in front of them. Of course such a film would need more than just blood and guts to succeed so let me think about it for awhile and I'll dream up a plot....

Chris

Have Spellberg do a decent remake of all quiet on the western frount

[Reinout]

I wonder, what is wrong with "All quiet on the western front", that you would like a remake to be done Phill? Didn't it convey the message to you?

Actually, I am all fore warmovies with (relatively) unknown actors in them; it helps to show people that it was about ordinary men and women. Only too often I have seen a warmovie becoming a glorification of war because of the Hollywood-actors not being taken seriously as soldiers. "Gettysburg" was an exception. "Stalingrad" (1991 German version), "Aces high", "Das Boot" and "All quiet on the western front"/"Im Westen nichts neues" and "Schindler's list" are in my view the best warmovies around, and they featured only a minimum of famous actors.

P.S.: I haven't seen "Saving private Ryan" yet.

Kind regards,

Reinout

[mike_baram]

Phil,
That's the best suggestion I've seen yet.
Mike