We Need More WW1 Films
This past weekend I settled in and watched Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front. It had been a while since I viewed a new war film. Shamelessly, I never read the book in school or otherwise (not on purpose, I just never got around to it), but I knew the basic premise: a German POV of trench warfare during WW1, or so I thought. Other than that, I had no idea what to expect, but the experience was grim, horrifying, emotional, depressing, and fantastic.
I’m not going to give a synopsis of the movie; if you have yet to see it and are curious, you should check it out. But I will say this: The film was brilliant in almost every facet. The cinematography was breathtaking, and the visualization of the battleground was incredibly immersive; I felt like I could feel and even smell the mud, grim and rats scurrying about the trenches. The plot and the writing are captivating (which is not surprising given the source material), and the performances are stellar. I also recommend watching it in the original German language with English subtitles; this made the experience even more captivating. In short, it was one of the best war films I have seen in a long time.
This led me to think about how many blockbuster WW1 movies have come out in the last few years, and other than the fantastic 1917, I couldn’t think of many. So why are there not more WW1 classics? There’s an endless amount of WW2 films, and I enjoy a lot of them, but there’s something different about movies about the Great War. I have been mulling on this the past few days, and with Remembrance Day coming up, it is a perfect time to meditate on the idea.
Why So Many Countless WW2 Classics?
There are a few obvious reasons for more WW2 movies. First, and perhaps most apparent, is that it happened more recently. The impact of WW2 carved the foundation for our modern lives, and its impact is irrevocable. Second, there is a central schism of good vs. evil. In other words, in WW2, there were clear villains like Hitler, Stalin and Imperial Japan, whereas, in WW1, their heroes and villains were murkier (from a neutral standpoint). This latter point is vital as having clear characters and themes is essential to any decent film or movie worth its mark (this goes for any storytelling medium). A columnist from the Guardian made this succinct point about why there is a plethora of WW2 films in a piece published shortly before the release of Fury:
The war itself, a gigantic conflict that played itself out in a myriad of theatres across the globe, that traumatised entire societies and triggered seismic political, technological and ethical upheavals, has almost endless potential for storytelling: there are little-known military exploits to recount, reassessments to be made, newly significant relationships to be detailed.
Regarding the lack of WW1 movies, there is an element of time that has eroded the allure to reflect on the Great War. Also, if you think about society in the immediate aftermath of WW1, there was global influenza that killed tens of millions of people worldwide, followed by the Great Depression in the 1930s (yes, there was a brief period known as the roaring twenties, but this was predominately an American and western period of cultural change), which may have made people less interested in reflecting on such a horror during times of continual hardships, particularly in Europe. Another critical point is that WW1 predominately impacted Europe and the Middle East. The Americans only joined the war in 1917, and the consequences were not felt as profoundly in America as in the rest of Europe. This partially accounts for why the few films created about WW1 following the conflict came predominately from European filmmakers. Then with the outbreak of WW2 and the subsequent Cold War, WW1 was all but forgotten in film and art. But that said, there’s a need and desire for artists and movie directors to go back and explore this forgotten part of history: There are lots of exciting motifs and stories to be unearthed.
WW1 Films Have a Greater Purpose
In both 1917 and All Quiet, there are interesting societal themes like industrialization and the dawn of a new age of machines and weapons in a new horror stage of warfare. Throughout these movies, the chaos of war is perfectly captured. It was the first modern world war (as its name suggests), resulting in a complete change of geographical lines in Europe and the Middle East. Empires, like the Ottomans and Germans, folded, leaving the way for a whole new international dynamic.
Moist poignantly, though, and this reverberated after watching All Quiet is how horrifying WW1 movies portray death and destruction on both sides. By the movie’s end, you feel drained and left pondering why millions need to die. Politics, greed, pride, nationalism, money? All of the above? Who was the enemy, and did the young men on the battlefield in Europe know what they were fighting for? All Quiet does a great job of forcing you to reflect on some of the uncomfortable truths to the questions above.
In an article for the L.A. Times, screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote the 1917 screenplay, said:
We can learn from World War I the colossal waste of life that war is. We can learn not to let small differences or politics divide us. And we can learn how to be better nations and better people.
The latter point is incredibly poignant, especially considering the state of the world right now. With so much of the globe shattered and divided, it’s films like All Quiet that punch you in the gut and remind you that, no matter the side, war is hell. Perhaps we need more movies like All Quiet to remind us how quickly the world can spiral out of control into a deep chasm of needless and horrific violence. As the adage goes, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
