The Battle of the Somme (film)
The Battle of the Somme (1916) was a documentary and propoganda film made by British official cinematographers Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell during World War I. Despite being intended as patriotic propaganda, the film was, for its time, a very graphic portrayal of trench warfare, showing dead and dying British and German soldiers.
The film was shot before and during the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Some of the scenes of troops going "over the top" had been staged before the battle had started but Malins captured many of the most famous scenes on July 1, 1916, the first day of the battle, when he was near the front at Beaumont Hamel. From this position he filmed iconic image of the detonation of the massive mine beneath Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt as well as the preparations and advance of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers of the British 29th Division. This was the same battalion that won six VCs at W Beach during the landing at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.
The film was released on August 10, 1916, while the battle was still raging, and was shown simultaneously in 30 London cinemas. The film spanned five reels and lasted 62 minutes and 50 seconds. The British public's response to the film was enormous with an estimated 20 million tickets being sold in two months. On this basis, The Battle of the Somme remains one of the most successful British films ever. A silent film, the titles could be remarkably forthright such as the following which accompanied an authentic scene of a wounded soldier being retrieved from no man's land.
- British Tommies rescuing a comrade under shell fire. (This man died 30 minutes after reaching the trenches.)
The film was shown to the British public to be a morale booster, but did the opposite. It was quite graphic in showing what was really happening, unlike newspapers which were saying the battle was going well.
