“The Battle of the Somme” is a British documentary
on the famous WWI battle. It was
entitled “Kitchener’s Great Army in the Battle of the Somme” in America. It was directed by Geoffrey Malins and he
used footage taken by himself and John McDowell. The War Office insisted that the movie boost
morale so it was edited to take out any images that might lower support for the
war. Although Malins and McDowell risked
their lives to go into the trenches, the scene where the Tommies go over the
top was staged. The movie was a huge hit
in Great Britain and sold 20 million tickets in its first six weeks. The movie is 77 minutes long and is divided into
five parts.
Part 1 covers the preparatory actions before the
battle. Soldiers march past a stationary
camera. Caissons are loaded and
artillery fires. “The shells tearing up
the enemy’s deep dugouts”. Nope. Part 2 is the battle. The men eat chow. A mine is blown up to facilitate the
attack. This is followed by the
advance. This includes the famous staged
scene where a Brit is shot just as he tries to leave the trench. Wounded are carried back. German prisoners are treated well. Dead bodies.
The another part is of the clearing of the battlefield. Victorious British, defeated Germans. The movie concludes with the devastation of
the battle. We see a destroyed French
village.
I can see why the movie was a big hit – in 1916. It must have seemed amazing to audiences to
be able to see what their boys were doing on the Western Front. It certainly went beyond what they were
getting from the newspapers and they may have been fooled into thinking they
were seeing reality. But they were
seeing rose-colored reality. How ironic
that the subject used to boost morale was one of the most infamous battles in
British history. A truthful documentary
of the battle would have been shocking to audiences and certainly would not
have been good for recruitment. Lt. Gen.
Henry Rawlinson remarked that it “cut out many of the dead and the horrors”. In fact, due to the limits of the
photography, there are no shots of men in battle. No shots of the slaughtering of the men
crossing no man’s land to be mowed down by machine guns and artillery. You would not have learned that the British
lost almost 60,000 men on the first day of the battle. This was the worst day in the history of the
British army, but I don’t think the moviegoers got that. Still, the movie is a must see for serious
war movie fans and cinephiles in general.
The footage is crisp and clear.
The title cards are not propagandistic.
You can learn about preparation for battle and the use of
artillery. So it has value as a
tutorial, but as entertainment, it is pretty boring. For instance, there is a lot of
redundancy. We see many shots of
soldiers marching. Christ, I think every
British soldier made it into the film.
I can only recommend “The Battle of the Somme” if you
really love war movies and want to check it off your bucket list. It will become, like for me, the oldest movie
you have ever seen. It is also a
must-see for any fans of the battle.
It’s not as good as a book, but it serves as a supplement. However, there are plenty of better documentaries
if you don’t want to read a book.
GRADE = C
