Made a decade after the events it shows, this film clearly makes a painstaking effort towards authenticity. It mixes wartime newsreel with re-enactments, and among its cast were several ex-soldiers who had been part of the fighting in the salient. It gives a clear summary of the three battles of Ypres, and is at pains to show the courage and resilience of the troops involved. Several episodes re-tell the stories of men who won the Victoria Cross. These are offset, though, by a few scenes of broad slapstick comedy, which help to humanise the story. This film will be of interest to anyone who wants to see how the story of the Great War was told in the 1920s, before the orthodoxy set in that the war had been nothing but futility and waste. I saw the film at at a special Remembrance Week matinée at the Imperial War Museum in London. It was accompanied by an excellent pianist, and the whole experience exceeded my expectations.
