1917



mickb2112 said:
I`ll check that out. I got two large books for WWI and WWII by AJP Taylor around 1978 from my parents for Christmas and I was hooked from then on. I always remember a painting of Verdun called Hell or something like that with solders in gasmasks in a water filled crater with a corpse at the side in the book by Georges Leroux which really stuck with me. I spent 2014-2018 reading about WWI in chronological order so spent a year reading about each year of the war. Doing the same for the 80th anniversary of WWII so have just started reading about the events of 1940.
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Quite some detail you've been reading there .
Finally found that Churchill piece


The anatomy of the battles of Verdun and the Somme was the same. A battlefield had been selected. Around this battlefield walls were built—double, triple, quadruple—of enormous cannon. Behind these railways were constructed to feed them, and mountains of shells were built up. All this was the work of months. Thus the battlefield was completely encircled by thousands of guns of all sizes, and a wide oval space prepared in their midst. Through this awful arena all the divisions of each army, battered ceaselessly by the enveloping artillery, were made to pass in succession, as if they were the teeth of interlocking cogwheels grinding each other.
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For month after month the ceaseless cannonade continued at its utmost intensity, and month after month the gallant divisions of heroic human beings were torn to pieces in this terrible rotation. Then came the winter, pouring down rain from the sky to clog the feet of men, and drawing veils of mist before the hawk-eyes of their artillery. The arena, as used to happen in the Coliseum in those miniature Roman days, was flooded with water. A vast sea of ensanguined mud, churned by thousands of vehicles, by hundreds of thousands of men and millions of shells, replaced the blasted dust. Still the struggle continued. Still the remorseless wheels revolved. Still the auditorium of artillery roared. At last the legs of men could no longer move; they wallowed and floundered helplessly in the slime. Their food, their ammunition lagged behind them along the smashed and choked roadways."
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Skandhaless said:
Yeah the french at least did quick rotation , i think the poor jerries were there for longer stints . Give Dan Carlins pod cast a listen if you haven't absolutely spell binding and informative . I've read about ww1 for 40 years but never thought about the true individual human reality of it until I listened to it .
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The Germans built much better and comfortable trenches because of how much longer they stayed.
 
nelford_safc said:
The Germans built much better and comfortable trenches because of how much longer they stayed.
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Although cases differ between armies, Germans stayed less in trenches. Towards 1917 they adopted the definitive version of ww1 defence in depth, with outpost zones pretty much consisting of shell holes. Front lines behind this were designed to be elastic and not survive the initial bombardment, whilst rear zones, well behind the fdl had irregular emplacements and shelters and could be developed more thpuroughl, often being sheltered by. reverse slopes, woods or towns. Behind this was the more permanent counter attack zone. British lines, were more solid made of single inflexible lines being supported by a support trench.
 
Stormo said:
Going to see it next week, looking forward to it. A mate was saying everyone was silent walking out at the end when he went.
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saw it over the weekend and exactly this. People just sat in silence in their seats for a while after it finished too
 
Did no one stay for the post credits scene?

here it is for anyone that missed it:

10 Gary Rowells said:
Absolutely brilliant film. Moving and tense. I'd be surprised if there's a better film this year.
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4th film i've seen this year and my 4th favourite.

1. Uncut Gems
2. Little Women
3. Jojo Rabbit
4. 1917


Still class tho like. Amazing start to the decade. Parasite and The Lighthouse still to come as well!
 
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tarfer said:
Aye lad from Houghton is in it but he's in it at the end. Jonny lavelle. Great lad! Doing really well.
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Ahhhh,right,i thought he might have been the north-east lad in the back of the truck,jonny lavelle,i will watch out for him in future,the kid from billy Elliott ended up in Hollywood,always room for talent.
 
Jon Dough said:
Ahhhh,right,i thought he might have been the north-east lad in the back of the truck,jonny lavelle,i will watch out for him in future,the kid from billy Elliott ended up in Hollywood,always room for talent.
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Fingers crossed for him. He's also in the Trial of Christine Keeler, Confessions and the new Tin Star series.
 
makumstu said:
Enjoyed the film but wouldn’t say I was amazed.

Bit that I didn’t get was the random woman and the “starving” baby, no chance would they have been able to hide out in the deserted town and not be found.
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Good summary , enjoyed it, it might win an Oscar because of Mendes being the director , the film itself isn’t worthy of an Oscar.

All films have a scene in that wouldn’t have happened , that is one.
 
Saw it at the Tyneside this evening. Very well made. Agree with some of the criticisms above but the run through No Man's Land was perfectly atmospheric and will stick in my mind for a while.

The Hungarian film Son of Saul has a very similar direction style, set in Auschwitz.
 

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