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Are there any good WW1 movies / series? Recommendations Welcome.

Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:16 pm
Posted by theGarnetWay
Washington, D.C.
Member since Mar 2010
25849 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:16 pm
I'm not sure if it's because of the magnitude of WW2, the trench warfare nature of WW1, or because there were so many veterans alive to tell their stories of WW2 for modern film making but I can't help but think there aren't any really good WW1 movies or series like there are so many for the various theaters of WW2.

Didn't like Fly Boys, didn't like War Horse, and the Lost Battalion wasn't bad for a 2001 A&E made film but as you can imagine the effects aren't exactly the best.

So are there are any really good WW1-themed films that you guys would recommend that would be on the level of some it's WW2 counterparts?
Posted by Feral
Member since Mar 2012
12375 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:17 pm to
Sergeant York is a very good movie.
Posted by UL-SabanRival
Member since May 2013
4651 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:20 pm to
Gallipoli.
Posted by Baloo
Formerly MDGeaux
Member since Sep 2003
49645 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:22 pm to
Gallipoli
All quiet on the Western Front
Paths of Glory
Johnny Got His Gun
Lawrence of Arabia
Posted by Jamohn
Das Boot
Member since Mar 2009
13542 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:25 pm to
The unfortunate reality is that you don't see many great WW1 flicks like you do WW2 because it wasn't a glorious war. It wasn't a harrowing tale. It wasn't a clearly-defined struggle between the forces of good and evil. It was a fricking depressing slosh of horrific attrition.

Those frickers dug trenches, rotted, starved, got sick, and just ground each other into sludge. And then had to do it all over again less than 30 years later.

That said, Paths of Glory is set in WW1 and is one of the greatest movies ever made. I'd start with that one if you haven't seen it.

I also like Hells Angels, which was Howard Hughes' flick that centered around arial combat I. WW1.
Posted by tiderider
Member since Nov 2012
7703 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:39 pm to
nothing i know of approaches the first 45 min of spr, and that's a shame ...
Posted by SportsGuyNOLA
New Orleans, LA
Member since May 2014
16953 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:42 pm to
A lot of people have named some very good films so far.

Definitely "Gallipoli", which has already been named.

There's another Australian film called "The Lighthorsemen".

Wikipedia or IMDB it- it's an excellent film.

"Paths of Glory" is a very good too, although it's half WWI fighting and half courtroom drama- still an amazing film.

Did you see "Joyeux Noel"? ("Merry Christmas") It's about the famous "Christmas Truce" made by the frontline soldiers in the trenches during the first Christmas of the war in 1914. I enjoyed it.
Posted by adavis
North of I-10
Member since Aug 2007
5749 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 4:43 pm to
Passchendale was good. It was about some Canadian soldiers.
Posted by LSUlefty
Youngsville, LA
Member since Dec 2007
26440 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 5:26 pm to
Legends of the Fall? The Lost Battalion with Ricky Schroeder was pretty good.
Posted by cattus
Member since Jan 2009
13414 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 6:01 pm to
quote:

It was a fricking depressing slosh of horrific attrition.


This. Just was not a fun war to be in or watch, only those that were there truly know.

quote:

Passchendale


That is one I personally would not recommend. Bad graphics too. Legends of the Fall would be a stretch IMO.
Posted by theGarnetWay
Washington, D.C.
Member since Mar 2010
25849 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 6:05 pm to
quote:


This. Just was not a fun war to be in or watch, only those that were there truly know.



I prefer war movies to be like this. Undoubtedly soldiers have done some pretty heroic things but I like movies and series like Platoon or The Pacific that show just how brutal war can be and how unglorious it is.
Posted by constant cough
Lafayette
Member since Jun 2007
44788 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 6:08 pm to
Paths of Glory
Gallipoli
Sergeant York
La Grande Illusion
The Blue Max
All Quiet on the Western Front
Posted by TigerintheNO
New Orleans
Member since Jan 2004
41157 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 7:14 pm to
I liked War Horse
Posted by Turkey_Creek_Tiger
Member since Dec 2012
12343 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 7:19 pm to
(no message)
This post was edited on 5/24/14 at 2:09 pm
Posted by Tackle74
Columbia, MO
Member since Mar 2012
5251 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 8:17 pm to
1929/30 All Quiet on the Western Front one of the greatest movies of all time, also good to watch as a history of movies type of thing being an early talking movie.

Sergeant York though a little propaganda heavy is a great movie with an incredible performance from Gary Cooper.

Blue Max, my favorite of all WW I Air Combat Movies

Paths of Glory, early Kubrick film, great film making.

Sorry but War Horse though a little bit of a heart string puller was a pretty good movie overall.

Of all these though All Quiet is Hands down the most authentic to the War.
Posted by theGarnetWay
Washington, D.C.
Member since Mar 2010
25849 posts
Posted on 5/23/14 at 8:24 pm to
quote:


Sorry but War Horse though a little bit of a heart string puller was a pretty good movie overall.



I guess I had different expectations of what is going to be. I figured it'd be about a story of a particular horse with the overall background being about a particular calvary unit's story. Similar to Band of Brothers being about paratroopers. The war from a different perspective.



Spoiler*






I didn't think it would be about a horse somehow going from owner to owner and being loved by all.
Posted by Kafka
I am the moral conscience of TD
Member since Jul 2007
141632 posts
Posted on 5/24/14 at 12:01 am to
quote:

it wasn't a glorious war
"Viewed purely as drama, the war is somewhat disappointing." -- D.W. Griffith, 1918

A favorite action-adventure of mine is The Dawn Patrol, set in an RAF outfit during WWI. This was actually filmed twice -- I prefer the remake with Errol Flynn and David Niven.



Wings (1927)

First Best Picture Oscar winner




After you've watched a bunch of WWI films, see if you can find The Last Flight.



It's a variation on Hemingway's Sun Also Rises (which would not be filmed until 1957), concerning aimless, disillusioned WWI vets who wander around Europe getting drunk. They even go to the bullfights, just like in TSAR. It's the most notable portrait of the "Lost Generation" made by the generation itself.





My favorite scene has the man and woman strolling through Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, final resting place of Balzac and Wilde, now best known as the home of Jim Morrison.

Documentaries:

The Great War (1963) -- 26 part BBC series which contains interviews with many actual participants.

The Great War (1996) -- A later BBC series

The Guns of August (1964) -- Feature length exploration of how the war started, from the classic book by Barbara Tuchman

"Hollywood Goes To War" (1979) -- An episode of Hollywood, the superb documentary series about silent movies produced by the great film archivist Kevin Browlow.

Posted by athenslife101
Member since Feb 2013
18551 posts
Posted on 5/24/14 at 3:54 am to
Deathwatch: It's a horror movie set in the trenches during WW1. I like it and I don't care what others say. Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis are in it too!

Paths of Glory has already been mentioned but I like it a lot. Listening to Dan Carl's take on WW1 right now and he describes an incident like this. Soldier is told he's going to be shot for cowardice and the general goes up and talks with him and tells him that by dying, he's doing a national service and that he should be proud for the example he would set and about how the man stood as prideful as could be imagined before the firing squad.
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
98128 posts
Posted on 5/24/14 at 4:00 am to
"the executions will continue until morale improves."

There was a real fear on both sides of revolution in the trenches, especially after the Bolsheviks took over in Russia.
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