Thursday, October 14, 2010

Finally! A World War I movie worth watching

Plenty of movies have been made about World War II, the U.S. Civil War, the Vietnam War. However, World War I has mostly gotten the shaft. The most recent attempt was Flyboys, which left me underwhelmed. I still await the day that Hollywood announces a movie about the Argonne Offensive - a two month bloodletting in the autumn of 1918 that killed more U.S. soldiers than the Battle of the Bulge and Iwo Jima, combined.

Until then, we can thank the Canadians for making their own movie about the defining battle for their country in the Great War.

The Battle of Passchendaele was fought in 1917, with the Canadians doing much of the heavy lifting against their German foe. This 9-minute scene is easily the most realistic combat scene I have ever viewed that showcases World War I, and is also one of the most realistic combat scenes I have ever viewed in any war movie.

I must warn you about extreme violence and language. C'mon, it's a combat scene for crying out loud:



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

5 comments:

Dan Edwards said...

Interesting. Thanks for the link. Most of that scene looks fairly historically accurate, from what I have read on the subject. However, I also understand that no movie or book can really accurately show just what those men went through. One of my grandfathers was in the US Army in WWI; the armistice was signed three days before his unit was to ship out to Europe from Camp Devers, Mass.

World War I movies said...

Yes, this was a very decent movie. I wish movie producers would make more films about WWI. I'm looking forward to the new one by Speilberg.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I used to wonder why my grandfather was so quiet.Why he was always drunk and cruel.This explains everything.

clipping path service provider said...

Your Blog is beautiful.The stuff you are using that is very useful and helpful....