Rentals
Cinema of WWI
A young film industry just settling into its own home - the cinema - found itself enlisted to record, report and dramatise a war unlike any other.
The films made during and just after World War I have a special directness, untainted as they are by layers of mythologising and cliché built up over the decades. There is a great variety of news, comedy and heartrending drama. A genre unique to this period of film production is the battle reconstruction film: the film equivalent of the stone memorials still to be found in every town and village of the UK.
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Poppies of FlandersPoppies of Flanders
War1928122 minsSilentDirector: Arthur Maude
Powerful wartime drama that sees rivals in love becoming comrades-in-arms in the trenches of the Western Front.
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YpresYpres
Documentary192579 minsSilentDirector: Walter Summers
Battle film made as a memorial to the dead of WWI, documenting events at Ypres using reconstructed and genuine footage.
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Sons of the SeaSons of the Sea
Crime192676 minsSilentDirector: H. Bruce Woolfe
Two boys answer the call of the sea as Royal Navy recruits in this adventure of the seven seas.
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BlightyBlighty
War1927106 minsSilentDirector: Adrian Brunel
Life on the Home Front during WWI, through the eyes of one family.
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All Quiet on the Western FrontAll Quiet on the Western Front
War1930133 minsDirector: Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone's pioneering, Oscar®-winning film is one of the most powerful films about the consequences of war
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Forgotten Men: The War As It WasForgotten Men: The War As It Was
Documentary193479 minsDirector: Norman Lee
Norman Lee’s 1934 documentary takes audiences through the harsh horrors and realities of war, showing everyone what soldiers truly go through within the armed forces.
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Brown on ResolutionBrown on Resolution
War193571 minsDirector: Walter Forde
Walter Forde’s 1935 war drama stars a young John Mills as the illegitimate son of a naval officer who brings down a German cruiser in WWI.
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More Cinema of WWI films in our Free collection