The Battle of the Somme

This is a documentary, apparently watched by a third of Britain's population at the time of release. Watching it now it may prove hard for some viewers to appreciate what a technological tour de force is was for the time. Being a war documentary issued at a time of war it is biased, but there is still enough there to hint at the horrors of the battle. It's true merit is in it's historical importance. Much has been used in documentaries since. For those with an interest in the First World War it is a must see, for others it is an education nonetheless.

The documentary is a genre that was born at the same time as the cinema itself because at the beginning the cinematographer was there to reflect and capture daily events of varying degrees of importance: the arrival of a train to a station, the exit of the proletarian masses from the factories or even the exciting view of the parishioners going in and out of church. It followed that the new invention was a perfect instrument to display images, costumes and events that would interest older people as well as the new long haired generation.

But "The Battle Of The Somme" it is not a trivial show of mundane events during the early times of the cinema; it is a document of a great importance for film history and history itself. The film depicts the terrible and largest WWI battle; it happened in a long front north and south of the River Somme in northern France and was a huge battle in which more than a million people from different nationalities died. The film is an exceptional document of the horrors of war that shows the great magnitude of that that tragic war or really any war. This conflict changed Europedrastically ( the end of the innocence ) and, even worse, rather than deter future wars, it only led the way to the even more terrible WWII. The film was photographed, not directed,-there is a big difference between those terms- by the British official cinematographers Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell whose primary intention was to film such an important battle but since they ended up shooting quite a lot footage, the British Topical Committee for War Films decided to release it as the first feature-length documentary film that depicts war combat. The film is structured and divided into different parts in which can be seen the different war preliminaries and the consequences of the battle, besides the tactics and arms used in the WWI. Since it was released during the war the movie functions as a propaganda film for the British Army. And of course it exposes to the civilians the horrors of war that was still raging. The film was shown in Great Britain and many countries of the world while the battles continued in France.

"The Battle Of The Somme" it is an exceptional war document of historical importance, a silent film that, although it seems a redundancy, doesn't need words.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave, because this German Count wants to wish that those disasters of war never happen again.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien

Yes some of these scenes were "Re-Enacted" for Propaganda/Enlistment purposes but let's not forget that every single soldier in this Movie, Documentary call it what you will are now dead, Most probably died at that time in that place or in later battles. Much footage was cut from the public version, as the War Office wanted the film to contain images that would support the war effort and raise morale.

It still manages to portray the horrors of war and its utter futility, did we learn our lesson

No,no we didn't

This is a remarkable piece of Cinema that has now passed from living memory

Lest We Forget

Last night I went to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank to watch a screening of the digitally restored print of this silent film, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, playing music written by Laura Rossi. I was nervous about the application of music to a silent film, as I am about the application of music to any film, but more so. Whilst there can be no doubt about the power of music to augment the impact of a scene, this manipulation of our emotions can also be crass, offensive, or a complete failure. There were times during this film when the music was the perfect partner - the rendering of the wind over the battlefield was incredible and terrifying. But the accompaniment of drum-bursts for the firing of artillery pieces was less-than-impressive. And there were moments when i wished the film would be left to speak for itself, such as the filming of the first charges; some men slid back down the muddy faces of the trenches, one thought initially because they had lost their footing, but it was soon clear that they had been killed before they had even set foot in no-man's land. For me, this moment would have been made powerful by silence, because there are no words or sounds for the sadness and futility of such things. Finally, on the music, the accompaniment of cheerful marching tunes when the lads marched back from "a successful attack", left me with a sour taste, but i think this says more about the film than the music. Laura Rossi could hardly provide sarcastic or barbed rejoinders (in the manner of Kipling or Sassoon's poetry) to these moments of propaganda. This is where the film falls down (but is still fascinating and valuable) in that, for the most part, it is content to talk up the British Army, the power of bombardment, and the success of its attacks. Even the images of dead men and horses are tempered by the smiling faces of 'jolly tommys' and the jaunty, cheery tone of the titles boards. What this unique visual record of the battle needs is to be seen in context, against the terrible losses of battalions such as the Accrington Pals, and the pitiful gains of this style of warfare. I never fail to be impressed, however, by the efforts of the institutions on the South Bank to bring amazing documents like this out of obscurity. Well done to them, and to Laura Rossi for her attempts to soundtrack this one-off film.

The war had been raging for almost two years when the British War Office sent two cameramen, one of them Geoffrey Malins, over to France's Western Front to document what the English department felt would be a major breakthough of the German lines during World War One.

Malins and cameraman John McDowell shot reels of film of the preparatory stage of British Expeditionary Force gearing up for its big push around the Somme River. Malins was informed the battle would begin when the detonation of tons of dynamite was ignited underneath the German-held Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. Malins, with limited film stock, was concerned when he ran through 250 feet of film and the appointed time of the explosion didn't come off. Then, in the next breath, he caught on film one of the largest mine explosions under enemy trenches. The release of August 1916's "The Battle of the Somme" captivated British audiences, especially seeing the explosion that was felt on July 1st all the way to London. The explosion can be seen around 29 minutes into the movie.

More tickets were sold in the first six weeks of the release of "The Battle of the Somme" than any other movie in England until 1977's "Star Wars," over 20 million viewers. London cinemas were saturated by playing the movie, with 34 projecting it all at the same time. Parents attended several showings of the film in hopes of seeing their sons. The documentry gained international status, displaying for the world, including Germany, the look of the lingering two-year war.

The 75-minute film was cinema's first feature war documentary, and the pattern Malins established would be followed throughout thousands of movie war documentaries.

Malins was able to record the bloodiest day in English history. Over 58,000 British soldiers either were killed, wounded or went missing on that July 1, 1916 day. Some of the German gunfire was so intense that as soon as the soldiers climbed out of their staging trenches scores were killed just 10 to 15 steps from where they began. Malins had to stage some of the battle scenes afterwards, recreating the scenes 25 miles behind the battlefield. But the cameramen were fortunate to film overrun German trenches and groups of German prisoners. But most effecting British viewers were the scenes of the wounded and dead of the United Kingdom's soldiers laid out and carried on stretchers.

After editing and releasing "The Battle of the Somme," Malins returned to France to film the war's introduction to the English tank, first used in the September 15, 1916 battle for the village of Flers-Courcellette. Marlins' January 1917 "The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks," unveiled to England's populace its country's secret weapon and its hope of breaking the Western Front logjam by this new solid steel mobile vehicle.

In later documentaries on World War 1, filmmakers used Malins and McDowell's footage to illustrate the advancements and brutalities of the war, a war that everyone at the time had predicted would end all wars.