I guess I wasn't paying attention. now that you mention it, I do remember that there was what looked like a good version back then, but never saw it. now I will. I've always thought Richard Thomas was an excellent actor and I once saw him do a really terrific Richard II at (I think) either Long Wharf or McCarter, sometime in the very ear…
now that you mention it, I do remember that there was what looked like a good version back then, but never saw it. now I will. I've always thought Richard Thomas was an excellent actor and I once saw him do a really terrific Richard II at (I think) either Long Wharf or McCarter, sometime in the very early '80s (possibly earlier)
I think what makes the Milestone version so powerful is the fact that it was a VERY early talkie and he utilized the primitivism of the only available techniques as STRENGTHS. those first battle sequences with the screen dark and lit by explosions while all those different voices screamed in pain and terror and both hit me very hard.
and I can't recall any important movies PRIOR to the Milestone which dealt directly with the insanity of trench warfare. "What Price Glory" is, in the final analysis, not so much about the war as it is about those two guys cursing up a storm for the lip readers.
as you know a lot better than I do, the great silent and early talkie WWI movies dealt with the air war. as usual, I welcome correction.
The first "realistic" war movie is King Vidor's 1925 "The Big Parade", in which the Battle of Belleau Wood is restaged in Griffith Park. It's silent; the cannon fire was bass drums. The screenplay was by Laurence Stalling, a veteran of the battle. Vidor and he were arguing at the outset about the battle. They made an overnight train trip, in which they shared a sleeping compartment. Stalling had the upper bunk. When Vidor saw his wooden leg drop in front of him to the floor when he took it off before turning in, he later wrote "I stopped arguing with him." It's a really amazing movie, done with hand-cranked silent cameras. It still has some of the most realistic battle footage, though if you are familiar with Griffith Park at all, it can be difficult to maintain "the willing suspension of disbelief."
Also the German movie "Westfront 1918" made in 1930 and directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst was considered far superior to Milestone's movie for portraying the war's effect on Germany and Germans. The Nazis hated it so much they burned the film even before they burned Remarque's novel. It was adapted from Ernst Johanssen's novel "Vier von der Infanterie".
Storyline (from IMDb): A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.
I guess I wasn't paying attention.
now that you mention it, I do remember that there was what looked like a good version back then, but never saw it. now I will. I've always thought Richard Thomas was an excellent actor and I once saw him do a really terrific Richard II at (I think) either Long Wharf or McCarter, sometime in the very early '80s (possibly earlier)
I think what makes the Milestone version so powerful is the fact that it was a VERY early talkie and he utilized the primitivism of the only available techniques as STRENGTHS. those first battle sequences with the screen dark and lit by explosions while all those different voices screamed in pain and terror and both hit me very hard.
and I can't recall any important movies PRIOR to the Milestone which dealt directly with the insanity of trench warfare. "What Price Glory" is, in the final analysis, not so much about the war as it is about those two guys cursing up a storm for the lip readers.
as you know a lot better than I do, the great silent and early talkie WWI movies dealt with the air war. as usual, I welcome correction.
The first "realistic" war movie is King Vidor's 1925 "The Big Parade", in which the Battle of Belleau Wood is restaged in Griffith Park. It's silent; the cannon fire was bass drums. The screenplay was by Laurence Stalling, a veteran of the battle. Vidor and he were arguing at the outset about the battle. They made an overnight train trip, in which they shared a sleeping compartment. Stalling had the upper bunk. When Vidor saw his wooden leg drop in front of him to the floor when he took it off before turning in, he later wrote "I stopped arguing with him." It's a really amazing movie, done with hand-cranked silent cameras. It still has some of the most realistic battle footage, though if you are familiar with Griffith Park at all, it can be difficult to maintain "the willing suspension of disbelief."
Also the German movie "Westfront 1918" made in 1930 and directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst was considered far superior to Milestone's movie for portraying the war's effect on Germany and Germans. The Nazis hated it so much they burned the film even before they burned Remarque's novel. It was adapted from Ernst Johanssen's novel "Vier von der Infanterie".
Storyline (from IMDb): A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.
Thank you David and TCfor the reflections on war films. I learned a lot---as usual around here.