"Going over the top" from footage
of the 1916 film "The Battle of the Somme". |
Although younger than photography by at least fifty years, cinema
was well established by the beginning of the war. Cinema-goers
all over the world were used to getting a regular dose of world
events courtesy of countless newsreel agencies.
The armies on all sides had their official correspondants, they
had their official photographers, they also had their official
cinematographers. What makes the Somme special is that it was
one of the first battles to be extensively filmed. In fact, a
series of reels from the first weeks of the battle, distributed
while the battle was still going on, had an extraordinary effect
on the theater-going public. Some of the scenes, it later turned
out, were staged in England yet never had there been such a detailed
study of any battle prior to that time. As many clips of this
precendent-setting film will be made available as can be found.
