The Battle Of The Somme Film Analysis

In this essay, I will be questioning whether the film ‘The Battle of the Somme’ provides a realistic picture of life in the trenches during the First World War. The Battle of the Somme, that had been fought in northern France, was one of the most violent battles that had taken place during the First World War. It had lasted five months while the British and French fought the Germans on a 15- mile front. The purpose of this battle was to hopefully alleviate the French who had been fighting at Verdun and to weaken the Germans. Soon after the battle, a film was made about the tragic events that had occurred – to show people what life was like in the trenches and what the soldiers had to go through in order to succeed. The film was made by Geoffrey …show more content…
The film teaches that the conditions in the trenches were not all bad and that the conditions were bearable however the source collection of poems says otherwise. Sources 35 and 36 explain how the conditions in the trenches were horrible and therefore are described a lot differently from how the film portrays them. Firstly, source 35; ‘knock- kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed our way through the sludge.’ Unlike the film, this indicates for the first time that actually, the soldiers did not want to be there. Moreover, this poem describes to us the reality of the war and actually explains that not everything was as great as it was made out. Not only this but Wilfred Owen, the poet, served in the front-line trenches of France in 1918 meaning that the information he gives in this poem is very reliable because it is an account of his own personal experience. Likewise, source 36 is a poem also written by a soldier who served in the battle, therefore concluding that this poem also contains dependable information. The poems explain that life on the battlefield wasn’t always as easy as it seemed. Next, source 42. In Flanders, this song was sung to the tune of ‘My Little Grey Home in the West.’ Lyrics to this song include ‘I’ve a little wet home in a trench, where the rainstorms continually drench.’ According to other resources, when a trench was flooded with water, men often were diagnosed with ‘Trench …show more content…
The film suggests that there was quite a lot of help given to wounded soldiers and the standard of medical efficiency was quite high. However, the sources say very little about this; source 8 illustrates Two British nurses tend a wounded soldier. Given that this is the only source that talks about anything medical related and it does not say much, it is evident that the facilities were not very good. In the source collection of memoirs, source 16 specifies that the nurses are unhelpful and ‘Dying men were made to sit up and smile,’ suggesting another negative point that was hidden from family and people at home. In addition, the treatment that the men were being given was obviously not working and were not good enough to cure the soldiers. To sum up, although there were a few nurses, they were not as useful and the film makes out they are, and therefore we cannot trust the film with this aspect of the