| The Battle of the Somme | |
|---|---|
 Yorkshire Evening Post advert for the film, 1916 | |
| Produced by | W. F. Jury |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Malins J. B. McDowell |
| Edited by | Charles Urban G. H. Malins |
| Music by | J. Morton Hutcheson (original 1916 medley) Laura Rossi (2006) |
| Distributed by | British Topical Committee for War Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Languages | Silent film Englishintertitles |
The Battle of the Somme (US title,Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme), is a 1916 Britishdocumentary andpropagandawar film, shot by two officialcinematographers,Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. The film depicts theBritish Expeditionary Force during the preliminaries and early days of theBattle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916). The filmpremièred inLondon on 10 August 1916 and was released generally on 21 August. The film showstrench warfare, marching infantry, artillery firing on German positions, British troops waiting to attack on 1 July, the treatment of wounded British and German soldiers, British and German dead and captured German equipment and positions. A scene during which British troops crouch in a ditch then "go over the top" was staged for the camera behind the lines.
The film was a great success, watched by about 20 million people in Britain in the first six weeks of exhibition and distributed in eighteen countries. A second film, covering a later phase of the battle, was released in 1917 asThe Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks. In 1920, the film was preserved in the film archive of theImperial War Museum. In 2005, it was inscribed onUNESCO'sMemory of the World Register, digitally restored and was released on DVD in 2008. "The Battle of the Somme" is significant as an early example of film propaganda, a historical record of the battle and as a popular source of footage illustrating the First World War.
The Battle of the Somme is a black-and-whitesilent film in five parts, with sequences divided byintertitles summarising the contents. The first part shows preparations for the battle; there are sequences of troops marching towards the front, French peasants at work in rear areas, the stockpiling of munitions, Major-GeneralBeauvoir De Lisle addresses the29th Division and some of the preparatorybombardment by18-pounder,60-pounder and4.7-inch guns,6-inch,9.2-inch howitzers and2-inch mortars is shown.[1]
The second part depicts more preparations, troops moving into front line trenches, the intensification of the artillery barrage by12-inch and15-inch howitzers, a9.45-inch heavy mortar and the detonation of the mine under theHawthorn Ridge Redoubt. Part three begins with the attack on theFirst day on the Somme (1 July 1916), with some re-enactments and shows the recovery of British wounded and German prisoners. The fourth part shows more scenes of British and German wounded the clearing of the battlefield and some of the aftermath. The final part shows scenes of devastation, including the ruins of the village ofMametz, British troops at rest and preparations for the next stage of the advance.[1]
On 2 November 1915, the British Topical Committee for War Films, representing Britishnewsreel producers and supported by theWar Office, despatched two cameramen to France. Geoffrey Malins ofGaumont British and Edward Tong of Jury's Imperial Pictures, were to shoot footage for short newsreels.[2] By early June Tong had fallen ill and been sent home but he and Malins had made five series of newsreels, which although well-received, had failed to impress the British cinema trade.[2] John McDowell, of theBritish & Colonial film company, volunteered to replace Tong and left for France on 23 June 1916.[2] On 24 June, the British and French armies began the preparatory artillery bombardment of German positions for theBattle of the Somme.[3]
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Malins and McDowell shot the film between 26 June and from 7 to 9 July. Malins filmed in the vicinity ofBeaumont Hamel, on attachment with the 29th Division (VIII Corps); McDowell worked further south nearFricourt and Mametz with the7th Division (XV Corps).[5] Before the battle, Malins worked at the north end of the British Somme sector, photographing troops on the march and heavy artillery west ofGommecourt. De Lisle suggested to Malins that he view the bombardment of Beaumont Hamel from Jacob's Ladder, near White City, an abrupt drop down the side of a valley, with about25 steps cut into the ground, showing up white because of the chalk.[6]Sappers had dug the large mine underHawthorn Ridge in front of White City. German shells were falling as Malins made his way to Lanwick Street Trench; he had to rise above the parapet to remove sandbags and then set up his camera, which was camouflaged with sackcloth.[7]
Malins returned to film the speech by de Lisle to the 2ndRoyal Fusiliers, after which Malins heard of the postponement of the battle for48 hours. Malins returned to White City to film the bombardment of the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt by trench mortars, during which there were three misfires which destroyed a trench-mortar position nearby.[8] On 1 July, Malins filmed troops of the 1st BattalionLancashire Fusiliers waiting to advance at Beaumont Hamel from asunken lane in no man's land, which had been occupied by digging a 2 ft × 5 ft (0.61 m × 1.52 m) tunnel overnight. Malins then went back to Jacob's Ladder to film the explosion of the Hawthorn Ridge mine. At7:19 a.m., Malins began filming and the mine detonation shook the ground as troops ofRoyal Engineers advanced on either side to occupy the crater.[7]
Later in the day, a shell explosion damaged the camera tripod; Malins repaired it and in the evening filmed roll-calls.[7] Next day Malins shot film atLa Boisselle before leaving for London around 9 July.[9] Malins returned to France and from12 to 19 July filmed sequences of shellfire and of troops advancing from trenches, staged for the camera at aThird Army mortar school nearSt Pol.[9][10] McDowell reached the Somme front after Malins and began filming British preparations on 28 or 29 June, to the east ofAlbert. He covered the opening day of the battle from the vicinity ofCarnoy and from the dressing-station at Minden Post. The success of the 7th Division enabled McDowell to film captured German trenches nearFricourt andMametz.[9]
On 10 July, Brigadier-GeneralJohn Charteris reported to the War Office that some 8,000 ft (2,400 m) offootage had been shot and recommended that sections of film should be released as soon as possible. Footage was first viewed as anegative on 12 July andCharles Urban is thought to have begun work on the film aseditor, with the assistance of Malins.[11] Urban later claimed to have proposed that the film be issued as afeature film rather than in short sections. The change in format was agreed with the British Topical Committee for War Films and a 5,000 ft (1,500 m) cut of the film was ready by 19 July.[11] Much of the footage wascensored from the public version as the War Office wanted the film to contain images that would support the war effort and raise morale.[5] A77-minute version was ready by 31 July and a rough cut was screened at theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF) General Headquarters (GHQ) atMontreuil, Pas-de-Calais and at theFourth Army headquarters. The commander Lieutenant-GeneralHenry Rawlinson said "some of it is very good but it cut out many of the horrors in dead and wounded".[12][13] The film was shown to theSecretary of State for War,David Lloyd George, on 2 August and members of the cinema trade late on 7 August, the day that the film received final approval for release.[13]
The film comprises five reels and is77 minutes long.[14] The first screening took place on 10 August 1916 at theScala Theatre, to an audience of journalists,Foreign Office officials, cinema trade figures and officers of theImperial General Staff. The screening was preceded by the reading of a letter from Lloyd George, exhorting the audience to "see that this picture, which is in itself an epic of self-sacrifice and gallantry, reaches everyone. Herald the deeds of our brave men to the ends of the earth. This is your duty".[15]
A musical medley with excerpts from classical, folk, contemporary and popular pieces, to be played in cinemas by accompanying musicians, was devised by J. Morton Hutcheson and published inThe Bioscope on 17 August 1916.[16] On 21 August, the film began showing simultaneously in thirty-four Londoncinemas and opened in provincial cities the following week, when the film was shown simultaneously at twenty cinemas inBirmingham, at least twelve cinemas inGlasgow andEdinburgh, six cinemas inCardiff and three inLeeds.[13][17][18] TheRoyal Family received a private screening atWindsor Castle on 2 September; the film was exhibited in more than eighteen countries.[19]
The popularity of the film was unprecedented and cinemas played the film for longer runs than usual, often to packed houses, while some arranged additional screenings to meet demand.[21] The film is thought to have achieved attendance figures of twenty million in its first six weeks of release.[22] The film also attracted more middle-class audiences, some of whom had never been to a cinema before.[21] William Jury, as the film's booking director, initially charged exhibitors £40, with the fee decreasing by £5 a week; after two months, a reduced fee of £6 for three nights put the film within the price range of village halls wishing to show the film.[17] By October 1916, the film had been booked by more than two thousand cinemas in Britain, earning over £30,000.[23]British authorities showed the film to the public as amorale-booster and in general it met with a favourable reception.The Times reported on 22 August that
Crowded audiences ... were interested and thrilled to have the realities of war brought so vividly before them, and if women had sometimes to shut their eyes to escape for a moment from the tragedy of the toll of battle which the film presents, opinion seems to be general that it was wise that the people at home should have this glimpse of what our soldiers are doing and daring and suffering in Picardy.
— The Times, 22 August 1916[24]
Some members of the audience considered it immoral to portray scenes of violence;Hensley Henson, theDean ofDurham, protested "against an entertainment which wounds the heart and violates the very sanctity of bereavement". Others complained that such a serious film shared the cinema programme withcomedy films.[25] On 28 August, theYorkshire Evening Post printed the comment, attributed to Lloyd George, "If the exhibition of this Picture all over the world does not end War, God help civilisation".[26] The film was shown to British troops in France from 5 September; Lieutenant-Colonel Rowland Feilding, an officer who saw the film in a muddy field nearMorlancourt, described it as "a wonderful and most realistic production" but criticised the film for failing to record the sound of rifles and machine-guns, although there was an artillery accompaniment from guns firing nearby.[5] Feilding suggested that the film could reassure new recruits, by giving them some idea of what to expect in battle; theintertitles were forthright, describing images of injury and death.[27]
The film was shown inNew Zealand in October 1916. On 12 October, theWellingtonEvening Post ran an advertisement for the film, describing it as "the extraordinary films of 'the big push' and "an awe-inspiring, glorious presentation of what our heroes are accomplishing today".[28] In a review published on 16 October, it was written that "these pictures of the Battle of the Somme are a real and valuable contribution to the nation's knowledge and a powerful spur to national effort".[29] The film premièred inAustralia on 13 October atHoyt's Picture Theatre inMelbourne. The MelbourneArgus considered that after the attack sequence, "... you are not in a Melbourne picture theatre, but in the very forefront of the Somme battle" and called the film "this moving reality of battle".[30]
The film and its reception attracted great interest inGermany, which was able to read a report from a neutral reporter in London, filed in theBerliner Tageblatt. British cinema was said to be taking a serious view of the war, helped by the government, which had arranged for the production of "real war films",The Battle of the Somme was "absorbing" and had attracted huge audiences. German troops recovered a letter from a British civilian, who had seen the film on 26 August and written to a soldier in France, describing the issue of a leaflet to each filmgoer that stated that the film was not entertainment but an official film. Having viewed the film, the writer was sure that it would enlighten the audience in a way never before achieved.[31]
During the second week of August, KingGeorge V, the Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith and Lloyd George toured theWestern Front and were filmed by Malins. The War Office released the film in October asThe King Visits His Armies in the Great Advance.[32] Malins made a third filmThe Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks which opened in January 1917.[33][c] In the same month a German filmWith our Heroes on the Somme was shown but "lacked the immediacy" of the British film, being re-enactments at training establishments behind the lines, which received a lukewarm reception.[34] A booklet to accompany the film proclaimed that it depicted "the German will in war" and implied that the enemies of Germany were using colonial troops to undermine "German honour".[35] Malins' final feature filmThe German Retreat and the Battle of Arras was released in June 1917, showing the destruction ofPéronne and the first British troops across the Somme, following-up the German withdrawal; the film failed to attract the audiences of 1916.[36]
In 1920, the originalnitrate negative was passed to theImperial War Museum for preservation. A nitrate protectionarchive master was made in 1921 and anacetate safety master in 1931. The nitrate masters were destroyed in the 1970s after the onset of irreversible nitrate decomposition.[37] Excerpts have been taken fortelevision documentaries, includingThe Great War (1964.BBC),The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century (1996,PBS) andThe First World War (2003,Channel 4).[38] The film was offered onVHS in 1987, the first title from the Imperial War Museum film archive to be released on video.[39] In 2005,The Battle of the Somme was inscribed onUNESCO'sMemory of the World Register for the preservation of global documentary heritage. The film was described by UNESCO as a "compelling documentary record of one of the key battles of the First World War [and] the first feature-length documentary film record of combat produced anywhere in the world" and had "played a major part in establishing the methodology of documentary and propaganda film."[40][37]
On 22 October 2006, after afilm restoration project, a refined version of the film was screened at theQueen Elizabeth Hall in London, accompanied by thePhilharmonia Orchestra performing an original orchestral score byLaura Rossi.[41] The restoration was later nominated for an Archive Restoration or Preservation Project award by the Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries.[42] In November 2008, the restored film was released onDVD, to mark the 90th anniversary of theArmistice with Germany in 1918. The DVD included the score by Laura Rossi, an accompanying 1916 musical medley, a commentary by Roger Smither, a film archivist at the Imperial War Museum and interviews with Smither, Rossi, Toby Haggith (film archivist) and Stephen Horne (silent film musician) on the reconstruction of the contemporary medley; film fragments and missing scenes were also included in the DVD.[43]
In 2012, with the support of the Imperial War Museum, there were public screenings of the restored film accompanied by a live orchestra playing the soundtrack of Rossi's music.[44] Somme100 FILM has a target of a hundred performances of the film by amateur and professional orchestras in the centenary year, between July 2016 and July 2017.[45]
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