The Soul of The Great War (WWI)
WWI was a war like no other ever fought in human history. The total number of military and civilian casualties was over 38 million. Right on the heels of it came the 1918 flu pandemic which killed another 50 to 100 million people—between 3-5% of the world's population. Boundaries that had defined empires dissolved and a new map of the world emerged.
You cannot understand WWII without knowing the history of WWI and you certainly cannot understand the world today without knowing the history of both wars. Movies don't have to stick to fact, but many remain very close. More importantly, the human stories give us a sense of what was won and what was lost.
You cannot understand WWII without knowing the history of WWI and you certainly cannot understand the world today without knowing the history of both wars. Movies don't have to stick to fact, but many remain very close. More importantly, the human stories give us a sense of what was won and what was lost.
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- DirectorPeter WeirStarsMel GibsonMark LeeBill KerrTwo Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.
- DirectorDelbert MannStarsRichard ThomasErnest BorgnineDonald PleasenceA young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
- DirectorTony BillStarsJames FrancoJean RenoJennifer DeckerThe adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.
- DirectorNikolai MüllerschönStarsMatthias SchweighöferLena HeadeyTil SchweigerGerman biopic loosely based on the World War I fighter ace Manfred Von Richthofen, nicknamed the Red Baron by friend and foe alike.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsCillian MurphyPádraic DelaneyLiam CunninghamAgainst the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
- DirectorJeremy SimsStarsBrendan CowellHarrison GilbertsonSteve Le MarquandIn 1916, the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company is tunneling beneath German fortifications and bunkers to detonate massive explosive charges.
- DirectorGillies MacKinnonStarsJonathan PryceJames WilbyJonny Lee MillerBased on Pat Barker's novel of the same name, "Regeneration" tells the story of soldiers of World War One sent to an asylum for emotional troubles. Two of those soldiers are England's most important WW1 poets.
- DirectorBrian KirkStarsDavid HaigDaniel RadcliffeKim CattrallAuthor Rudyard Kipling and his wife search for their 18-year-old son after he goes missing during World War I.
- DirectorJames KentStarsAlicia VikanderKit HaringtonTaron EgertonA British woman recalls coming of age during World War I - a story of young love, the futility of war, and how to make sense of the darkest times.
- DirectorPaul GrossStarsPaul GrossMichael GreyeyesJames KotThe lives of a troubled veteran, his nurse girlfriend and a naive boy intersect first in Alberta and then in Belgium during the bloody World War I battle of Passchendaele.
- StarsAndrew ClarkePaul HoganJon BlakeThe lives of a dozen Australian soldiers who served in the ANZACs. Fighting first at Gallipoli in 1915, then on the Western Front for the remainder of WWI, it's the story of the hardships, camaraderie and casualties of war.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
- StarsKenneth BranaghHarry PatchHubert WilliamsDocumentary using computer colorized footage from World War I to give the audience the feel of how it really looked back during the war.
- DirectorRussell CroweStarsRussell CroweOlga KurylenkoJai CourtneyAn Australian man travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try to locate his three missing sons.
- StarsEddie RedmayneClémence PoésyMatthew GoodeAs an English soldier fights in the horrific trenches of northern France, he is haunted by the memories of his forbidden love affair with a French woman.
- DirectorJohan EarlAdrian PowersStarsJohan EarlTim PocockMartin CoppingThree British soldiers find themselves stranded in No Man's Land after a failed charge on the German Trenches. Set in France 1916.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsJeremy IrvineEmily WatsonDavid ThewlisA young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.
- DirectorAdam KempStarsH.H. AsquithClementine ChurchillWinston ChurchillAs a young Winston Churchill masterminds British involvement in the First World War, his wife Clementine serves to temper his enthusiasm for war lust and lays the groundwork for molding the future statesman.
- StarsJonathan LewisVoja TankosicAndrée BernardA comprehensive survey of the history of World War I.
- DirectorJoseph MurphyRebecca ThompsonStarsPaul von HindenburgFrom the beginning to the end, this is what happened during WW1. Told by genuine oral testimony recorded and saved by the Imperial War Museum. Presented as a complete history of the large and small components of what made that terrible time in our 20th century.
- DirectorGilles BourdosStarsMichel BouquetChrista ThéretVincent RottiersSet on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Jean Renoir -- son of the Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste -- returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. At his side is Andrée, a young woman who rejuvenates, enchants, and inspires both father and son.
- DirectorCãlin Peter NetzerStarsVictor RebengiucCamelia ZorlescuMimi BranescuAccidentally receiving a Romanian Medal of Honor, a 75-years-old retiree uses it to regain respect from his family.
- DirectorMarty CallaghanMarty Callaghan's Synopsis: Except for the Dardanelles/Gallipoli campaigns, the extensive combat operations in the Middle East during World War I have been largely overlooked in documentary programs. Given the historical significance of the Ottoman Empire's demise in 1918, and the ongoing importance of Middle Eastern oil reserves to Western economies, a close study of this conflict provides two important lessons: 1. The Treaty of Versailles, agreed to by the Western Powers in 1919, paved the way for military and political chaos in the Middle East, which continues to this very day. 2. Oil reserves in the Middle East became an important strategic concern for Western Powers, helping to justify their economic, diplomatic and military interference in the region. After the end of World War I, most of the Ottoman Empire was carved up into "spheres of influence", controlled mostly by the British and French. The remaining territories became the modern state of Turkey in 1923 - after a five-year struggle by Turkish nationalists against Western domination. With little regard for cultural, historical, religious and demographic considerations, the West sponsored the creation of several new nations: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Thus, a "tinderbox" was built from Western greed, igniting a multitude of wars, revolts, coups and military occupations that truly have made the defeat of the Ottoman Empire little more than a hollow victory.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsGary CooperHelen HayesAdolphe MenjouAn American ambulance driver and an English nurse fall in love in Italy during World War I.
- DirectorKen HarrisonStarsWilliam Converse-RobertsHallie FooteMatthew BroderickThe moving story of a small Texas town in 1918. Until an influenza epidemic hit and several broken young men returned from the war in Europe.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKirk DouglasRalph MeekerAdolphe MenjouAfter a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
- DirectorJohn GuillerminStarsGeorge PeppardJames MasonUrsula AndressA young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
- DirectorMenno MeyjesStarsJohn CusackNoah TaylorLeelee SobieskiA film studying the depiction of a friendship between an art dealer named Rothman and his student, Adolf Hitler.
- DirectorRachel WardStarsMarie BunelDan SpielmanJulia ZemiroBased on the novel, Silent Parts, by John Charalambous, An Accidental Soldier is about an Australian soldier who flees the carnage of the Western Front and finds refuge with a French woman in a remote farmhouse. Harry Lambert is a shy, thirty five year old Australian soldier, working as a baker behind the lines. He is a gentle man, a reluctant soldier, but a man like many who has been shamed by his local community into joining up. But when he is called into the front line Harry decides to run, finding refuge in a farmhouse owned by Colombe Jacotot, a Frenchwoman in her forties whose husband has abandoned her and whose son has recently been killed. Forced to work in an ammunitions factory, Colombe too is trenchant about the war. Through her Harry will learn true courage. Through him Colombe will learn beauty. Together they will discover a love so strong that each is willing to give their life for it. An accidental soldier is a tender, at times gripping love story between two people who find passion, in all its joy and hurt, at an age when they thought love has passed them by. It is a story of unexpected bravery of countless men and women who would not give up their lives for abstracts like glory, or country. Those who wanted to live for love and life.
- DirectorPaolo TavianiVittorio TavianiStarsPaz VegaMoritz BleibtreuAlessandro PreziosiA stirring and stunning story of an aristocratic family who is unexpectedly swept into the ravages of World War I and a forbidden passion that may be the family's only hope.
- DirectorAlberto LattuadaStarsSuzy KendallKenneth MoreNigel GreenDuring the First World War, female German spy Fraulein Doktor and her team of saboteurs plan to kill Lord Kitchener, obtain the Allied defense plans, and steal the new French mustard-gas formula.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe NoiretSabine AzémaPascale VignalIntense character study of men and women driven by an overpowering obsession with the past.
- DirectorAndy De EmmonyStarsBen ChaplinPatrick FitzSymonsJulian Rhind-TuttBased on the remarkable true story of a satirical newspaper published on the front lines of World War One, this poignant yet comedic drama revels in the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.
- StarsBenedict CumberbatchRebecca HallRoger AllamRevolves around a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife and a young suffragette.
- StarsNicki VickeryRob TownsendGerard KearnsThree true stories of British soldiers fighting in World War 1. Each one takes place at a different time and place in the war, focuses on a different unit and shows a different aspect to the war.
- StarsIan McDiarmidNicholas FarrellTim Pigott-SmithA TV mini-series that unveils the behind-closed-doors story of the final weeks before the outbreak of World War I.
- StarsEva-Marie BeckerVarij EkelundDramdocumentary based on letters and journals, many of which have never been published before, this tells the story of 1914-18 solely through the eyes of those who lived through it. Bringing together 25 broadcasters from around the world, this is television's global event for the centennial of World War I.In 1914, most people's knowledge of war comes from schoolbooks and newspapers. But when the heir to the Austrian throne is killed in Sarajevo, the system of alliances runs its inevitable course. Featuring the stories of a Scottish auxiliary nurse who accompanies the British army to Belgium as a matter of national Honor, a young Cossack girl who follows her father into battle, a German mother who endures the untimely death of her only son, a French schoolboy who witnesses his country under occupation, a German schoolgirl who is forbidden to use French words in class, and an English journalist whose age is held against him. Their diaries focus on what archive and historical analysis cannot reveal: personal tragedy, love, happiness, pain and grief. Through glorious dramatic reconstruction viewers experience the greatest war mankind had ever seen, not from the perspective of what it was, but of what it was like from within. Great War Diaries reveals the simple human experience of 1914-18, unsullied by historical interpretation.
- StarsPatrick GibsonJack LowdenHubert BurtonAn epic historical drama spanning the five years of the First World War, as seen through the eyes of two ordinary young soldiers.