The Battle of the Somme
About The Battle of the Somme
Official cameras follow the British preparations and the first days of the Somme. Infantry marches, guns fire, men wait to go over on July 1, the wounded are treated, and the dead, British and German, are shown. One shot of troops leaving a ditch was staged behind the lines.
Cast & crew
More about The Battle of the Somme
Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell shot it for the War Office. Charles Urban edited. The London premiere was August 10, 1916. General release was August 21. In the United States it was called Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme. About 20 million people in Britain saw it in the first six weeks. It went to eighteen countries. A sequel, The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks, followed in 1917. The Imperial War Museum preserved it in 1920. UNESCO put it on the Memory of the World Register in 2005. A digital restoration came out on DVD in 2008.
Themes
Look
Malins and McDowell filmed the guns, the waiting troops, and the staged climb out of the ditch.
Preservation
Preserved at the Imperial War Museum since 1920. Inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005 and digitally restored for a 2008 DVD.
Notes
- The over-the-top scene was staged. The dead and the wounded were not.
- Beaumont-Hamel is one of the places on the film.
- Beauvoir De Lisle appears.
- The 1917 Ancre film is a second picture, not a recut.
Awards
- UNESCO Memory of the World Register (2005)
Scenes
- Men wait, then the staged line climbs out of the ditch.
- German and British dead lie where the cameras found them.
Also available
- Imperial War Museum