The First World War and Popular Cinema

Cinema was almost twenty years old when WWI broke out but the war introduced radical changes in the making and use of film. The First World War and Popular Cinema is a new attempt to provide a comparative analysis of how the war has been remembered in film. It looks at how national cinemas were mobilised as part of the war effort and at how, subsequently, film makers shaped the memory and legacy of the war in later years. The book takes a comparative approach with case studies on Britain, United States and Russia and includes essays which examine the film production of other combatant nations: Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Canada, Poland. The films examined include All Quiet on the Western Front, Gallipoli, J'Accuse, The Grand Illusion, The Big Parade, Westfront 1918 and Regenerationwell as lesser known titles from the period 1920-1990. For students, teachers and academics, as well as readers interested in film or the First World War, this collection of essays provides a fascinating study of the ways in which popular cinema has reconstructed the experience of the First World War.Key Features: * Original and comparative volume * An examination of how all the major combatant nations have reconstructed the war in film * All essays are written by distinguished experts in their field * Illustrated with rare contemporary photographs, film stills and film posters