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The Battle of the Somme is a British film of genre War directed by Geoffrey H. Malins

The Battle of the Somme (1916)

The Battle of the Somme
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Length 1h2
Directed by ,    
Genres War,    Documentary
Rating65% 3.2899453.2899453.2899453.2899453.289945

The Battle of the Somme (US title, Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme), is a 1916 British documentary and propaganda film, shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. The film depicts the British Army in the preliminaries and early days of the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916). The film had its première in London on 10 August 1916 and was released generally on 21 August. The film depicts trench warfare, showing marching infantry, artillery firing on German positions, British troops waiting to attack on 1 July, treatment of wounded British and German soldiers, British and German dead and captured German equipment and positions. A scene where 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 c.  20 million British people in the first six weeks of exhibition and was distributed in eighteen other countries. A second film covering a later phase of the battle, was released in 1917 as The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks. In 1920, the film was preserved in the film archive of the Imperial War Museum and in 2005, was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. In 2005, the film was digitally restored and in 2008, was released on DVD. The Battle of the Somme is an early example of film propaganda, an historical record of the battle and a popular source of footage illustrating the First World War.
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Source : Wikidata

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