The Battle of The Somme (film)

The Battle of The Somme is a 1916 British film about the battle of the Somme. Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell have the documentary filmed at the front in France during the first world war. Through actual war images are the horrors of trench warfare on a very penetrating way depicted. The documentary was as seen by many millions of British war film and was shown in 18 other countries.

Since 1922 The Battle of The Somme is preserved in the Imperial War Museum. In 2008 is a restored digital version released on dvd .



Content
[hide] *1 World Heritage site  ==World Heritage[ Edit] == In 2005, the UNESCO included The Battle of The Somme on the World Heritage list for documents because the movie is unique, on the one hand as a historical record of the battle of the Somme, on the other hand, because it is the first documentary about a war is with the length of a feature film. In the latter capacity, the film played an important role in the development of documentaries for propaganda purposes. The film made the debate about all kinds of ethical questions around the exhibit of los war images and other non-fiction. Because the movie was seen by many millions of British within weeks, the film was already recognized as an important means of the home front to share in the experiences of the soldiers at the front, which ushered the concept of total war . Because the film also was shown in the countries of the allies and in neutral countries, including Russia and the United States, the film has influenced the way in which the world looked at against this war and against the British. That effect has the documentary to this day, as the vivid images from this documentary almost daily are used when talking about the first world war. ==Content[ Edit] == The Battle of The Somme is a black and white film consisting of five parts[1]. The individual scenes of these parts are separated by intertitels, as usual with silent films.
 * 2 Content
 * 3 Production
 * 4 visitor numbers
 * 5 Comments
 * 6 external links

The first part shows how life behind the front looks like in the preparations for the battle: troops marchingto the front, French farmers who just go ahead with their work on the land, supplying ammunition stores, General Sir Henry de Beauvoir De Lisle who on horseback for speaking to the men of the 29th Division and preparatory artillery bombardment on the German positions. The second part shows the evening and early morning before the battle: an army camp where troops food, troops who move to the front trenches, the artillery bombardments and becoming more violent blow up the German positions at Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt ten minutes before the start of the battle.

Volume three opens with the beginning of the battle at 7: 30 p.m. on 1 July 1916. Images are shown of troops coming out of the trenches to enter the no man's land, of troops who are under fire in the trenches and of the many wounded British and German soldiers in the trenches are taken to the hinterland. In the fourth part are images of the aftermath of the attack: more British and German wounded, securing of ingested fields, dead soldiers on the battlefield and the mining of graves. Also the last part contains images of devastation including craters, collapsed after the attack: trenches and the ruins of the village of Mametz, soldiers who captured German guns view, outfitting British troops, preparing for a next war day and the deportation of German prisoners of war. ==Production<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">The two cameramen Malins and McDowell have the images filmed during the week before the start of the battle on July 1, 1916 and in the first week after. The most famous scenes were filmed by Malins on 1 July 1916 at Beaumont-Hamelto the front. From there he filmed the heavy explosion of the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt under the German position explosives that were buried. The images of soldiers who enter the no man's land are from the trenches as well as some other images put in scene. On different images can be seen that the soldiers on the camera respond.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">Although the filmmakers had not the intent to make a feature film out of it, there appeared to be as much quality material that the British Topical Committee for War Films decided to to do so. Within weeks the film was ready, and on 10 August 1916, the film was screened for a select group while the battle of the Somme was still in full swing.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">The Battle of The Somme by the British Government was used as a propaganda film. There is also known as supposed that quite a lot of film images are not in the film ended up as the War Office (Ministry of war) not found fit the purpose of the film: increasing support for the war effort and jacking up the morale of the population. ==Visitor Numbers<span class="mw-editsection" len="355" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">The Battle of The Somme on 21 August 1916 went in Premiere in 34 London cinemas and the following week in the rest of the country. The British Royal family saw the movie during a private performance at Windsor Castle in september 1916. The film drew exceptionally many visitors: in the first six weeks 20 million tickets were sold. Eventually had more than half of the 43 million British at that time seen the movie. At a time when the cinema had developed into a centre of entertainment, it is all the more exceptional that such serious public documentary was so successful. Visitor numbers on the basis of this is The Battle of The Somme one of the most successful British films of all time. Also abroad, including the United States, the film attracted a mass audience. The film was screened in 18 countries. ==Comments<span class="mw-editsection" len="345" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">The film was generally well received by the British public. The Times did report the day after the premiere of full houses and positive comments from the public on the realistic although occasionally gruesome images. The newspaper concluded that the general mood was that it was good that the unit of the home front a glimpse what the soldiers did, their courage and their suffering<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" len="182" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]. Others felt it was immoral to such violence to show in the movie theater and the blanket of Durham protested against a form of entertainment that the wounded hearts and desecrated the mourning. Still others complained that such a serious film between the laugh films was screened. The tremendously high visitor numbers reflected the view of the general public.