In this season of Remembrance, in November 2019, we look at:
- two films depicting experiences of young adults and their families during the First World War. Both are true stories, reflecting the wider experience of many people in WW1.
- a documentary film about the experience of soldiers on the Western Front in WWI. The first depiction with colour and sound – a landmark in popular WWI history.
- the symbol of poppies
- a famous poem from WWI
Testament of Youth (2014)
What’s it like: Historic and domestic drama, good reconstruction. Informative, evocative, very moving.
Plot: This is the true story of Vera Brittain, a young English woman during the First World War, both as a civilian on the home front with her family and friends and as a nurse in the hospitals of London and the Western front. As well as one person’s story, it symbolizes the experience of a whole generation, in terms of courage, sacrifice, huge loss and lives forever changed.
Comment:
The historical reconstruction is excellent and takes you back to the world of the 1910s. The acting is good quality and the characters real and sympathetic. Together, it makes a v believable presentation which draws you in to the developing story.
Vera Brittain is a v determined and visionary character: against all expectation, she is determined to go to university and achieves that; and when war breaks out, she is determined to give up that comfortable existence and serve as a nurse. Nursing in the relative safety of London is not enough: she is determined to go to the Western front. Even after the war, she is ahead of others, calling for an end to war and reconciliation with former enemies.
Interesting fact 1: The film is based on Vera Brittain’s memoirs, also called ‘Testament of Youth’ covering 1900 to 1925 and published in 1933. It is acclaimed as an account of the impact of the war on their generation. It is also notable for its anger that the war took place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_of_Youth
Interesting fact 2: Vera Brittain later had a daughter Shirley Williams, who became a leading left-centre politician of the 1970s and 1980s. She is now Baroness Williams in the House of Lords. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Williams
Cast: Lead role is Alicia Vikander. Also in Tomb Raider, The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, Between The Oceans. She is a v versatile actress.
Rating: 4/5
My Boy Jack (2007)
What it’s like: Historic and domestic drama. Informative, very moving, thought-provoking.
Plot: This is the true story of the writer Rudyard Kipling, his American wife Caroline and their son Jack. Kipling, as well as being a successful novelist and poet, is a senior figure in British society and part of the British establishment. He supports the emerging war in 1914, as a way of resolving the tensions between the major European powers, and curtailing the imperialism of Germany. When the war comes, this means that his own son Jack will go to fight, and he encourages this, though with some trepidation, expecting the battles will only be light skirmishes. His wife is v wary of the whole business.
What Kipling and the rest of the establishment are unprepared for is how technology has transformed war and greatly escalated the numbers of casualties in battle. He now realises his son is in great danger indeed.
Comment:
My Boy Jack is informative and educative about the experience of families in the UK when war approached and broke out in 1914-15. There are scenes at home, at public events in London and on the Western Front. It illustrates the tensions between the older generation who had known old-style war, and the new war brought in by modern technology. It also highlights the tension between the sense of duty and expectation to take part, and the trepidation that young adults were going to a place of great danger.
The experience of the Kipling family was probably typical of many families during WWI.
The acting is good throughout. David Haig is excellent as Kipling – blustering, enthused but decent and human – in probably one of the finest performances of his career. Daniel Radcliffe is very good as Jack, one of his first non-Harry Potter roles.
Background: Kipling later wrote a poem about a young man lost in the war, including the refrain ‘Is there any word of my boy Jack ? When is he coming back ?’ It is used to great effect in this film. The poem was actually about another young man, Jack Cornwell, who was lost in the sea battle of Jutland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Boy_Jack_(poem)
Interesting fact 1: The film is based the 1997 play My Boy Jack, written by David Haig who plays the lead role of Kipling.
Interesting fact 2: David Haig, though not a household name, has been a familiar figure on British tv since the late 1970s: you are bound to have seen him at some time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Haig#TV_and_film
Cast: David Haig as Rudyard Kipling, Kim Cattrall as his wife Caroline Kipling, Daniel Radcliffe as Jack Kipling and Carey Mulligan as his sister Elsie ‘Bird’ Kipling.
Made by: ITV, and first shown on ITV on 11 Nov 2007
Rating: 4/5
They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
What’s it’s Like: Candid, honest, revealing portrait of the typical experience of British WWI Western front soldiers – for the first time, in colour, with sound. A breathtaking revelation of their experience.
Content: The film depicts the journey taken by the typical soldier, from recruitment, through training, the journey to the front, then fighting and the return home.
The film uses actual footage from the war, but using modern film enhancement technology, for the first time it is in colour, with sound and slowed down to real-life pace. The narration is the voices of actual soldiers, speaking in interviews in later years.
Overall, it is a v accurate picture of what it was like.
Only the section at the Western Front is in colour, from minute 25 to minute 80.
Viewers’ Warning: the scenes and descriptions at minutes 60 to 80 are graphic and disturbing.
Directed by: Peter Jackson, who made Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit films.
Made by: BBC, and first shown on BBC on 11 Nov 2018
Rating: 5/5 A landmark in WWI film-making and historical documentary.
Symbol: Poppies
Poppies have been the official symbol of remembering the fallen since 1921. Their use was inspired by the poem ‘In Flanders Field’ (see below). It was promoted initially by the French and American humanitarians Madam Guerin and Moina Michael. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_poppy
The poppy is a powerful symbol because it is alive and yet delicate, and the redness represents blood and hence both life and death. This is well depicted in Monet’s painting ‘Poppies’: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj6y-iUmuLlAhWQzYUKHXjkDQIQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.boutiquesdemusees.fr%2Fen%2Fprints%2Fposter-the-poppies-by-claude-monet%2F477.html&psig=AOvVaw0huqXlZrUiRiJL2GHsDeul&ust=1573563227767542
The Royal British Legion says: ‘The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance and hope, including hope for a positive future and peaceful world.
They are a show of support for the Armed Forces community, those currently serving, ex-serving personnel and their families; and a symbol of Remembrance for all those who have fallen in conflict.’
webpage of Royal British Legion: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/about-remembrance/in-flanders-field
There is a range of other poppies: white (peace), purple (for animals), black (anti-war), khadi (for India), rainbow (for LGBT). They are usually worn instead of or alongside red poppies.
Poem: In Flanders Fields
A great deal of poetry was written by soldiers on the Western Front (such as Wilfred Owen, Siegried Sasson and Rupert Brooke).
‘In Flanders’ Fields’ is one of the most moving. It was written in 1915 by a Canadian solder after a friend died at Ypres and he saw poppies blooming on war-scarred fields. Flanders is the north-western half of Belgium.
The poem is a poignant reflection on the fallen, who were recently living but now lie buried in a field with poppies blooming.
`In Flanders’ Fields’ by John McCrae
In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high, If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders’ Fields. 15 November 2019
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