by Graeme Stirling
War films have a long and varied history, stretching back to the end of the First World War itself.
Monday 11th November 2013 marks the 95th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the conflict. It’s impact was so profound that, for a while, it was believed that violence on such a scale could never occur again.
War films have a long and varied history, stretching back to the end of the First World War itself.
Monday 11th November 2013 marks the 95th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the conflict. It’s impact was so profound that, for a while, it was believed that violence on such a scale could never occur again.
By the time the treaty was signed, the first films depicting it were already in production if not in theatres: The Service Star, Shoulder Arms, The Heart of the World and Heart of Humanity were all released by Hollywood in 1918, followed swiftly by the French J’accuse and the Belgian La Belgique Martyre in 1919. Since then, the ball has never stopped rolling. This year saw the release of Forbidden Ground, an Australian production that follows two British soldiers lost in no-man’s land. Two years before, Spielberg’s War Horse swept the award ceremonies.
Over the decades, these films – understandably solemn in tome – have been gradually drenched by those depicting the Second World War. Similarly, the heyday began no sooner than that fighting had time to end and enjoyed years of constant success. Films like Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone followed the heroic exploits of gentleman officers, often mixing romance and adventure with a curious sense of optimism, epitomised by The Great Escape, which has probably been shown on Christmas Day more times than anything else ever committed to celluloid. It became a formula, too, for paperback writers, with committed heroes in shadowy situations dominating the market as recently as the death of spymaster Tom Clancy. It’s only in the last few years that grit and grime and moral ambiguity have become fashionable, digestible viewing.
Over the decades, these films – understandably solemn in tome – have been gradually drenched by those depicting the Second World War. Similarly, the heyday began no sooner than that fighting had time to end and enjoyed years of constant success. Films like Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone followed the heroic exploits of gentleman officers, often mixing romance and adventure with a curious sense of optimism, epitomised by The Great Escape, which has probably been shown on Christmas Day more times than anything else ever committed to celluloid. It became a formula, too, for paperback writers, with committed heroes in shadowy situations dominating the market as recently as the death of spymaster Tom Clancy. It’s only in the last few years that grit and grime and moral ambiguity have become fashionable, digestible viewing.
This, at least, has been the case with British and American cinema. Take a look at the continental European and Soviet films and you might find something very different. Belgium’s first exploit was a portrait of the suffering of ordinary Flemish citizens caught up in the conflict. Germany’s The Last Days of Sophie Scholl – based on the memoirs of a girl and her brother arrested by the Gestapo mere days before Berlin was taken – is one of the most disturbing you might find. Andrzej Wajda’s Katyn focuses on the mass execution of Polish officers in a forest in Soviet territory after the supposed liberation of their homeland. The sheer number and tonal range of books and films inspired by the conflict – from the most meticulously crafted biopics and documentaries to the vaguest allusions to the war as a temporal and visual backdrop – is almost impossible to quantify.
Then there are the games, comic books and other media that have in some way twisted two of the world’s darkest and most violent periods into a near-endless fountain of creativity, right into sci-fi territory and back again (see Hellboy, Frankenstein’s Army etc).
If you haven’t the time to do anything else this Remembrance Sunday, have no service to go to or aren’t satisfied with the safety-stick paper poppy, find a favourite war film – there has to be one – settle in to watch and remember what really went on before we had websites.
Then there are the games, comic books and other media that have in some way twisted two of the world’s darkest and most violent periods into a near-endless fountain of creativity, right into sci-fi territory and back again (see Hellboy, Frankenstein’s Army etc).
If you haven’t the time to do anything else this Remembrance Sunday, have no service to go to or aren’t satisfied with the safety-stick paper poppy, find a favourite war film – there has to be one – settle in to watch and remember what really went on before we had websites.
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