Why World War I?

[Tadji Malik]

Why limit yourself to trenches and the birth of the airplane? WWII had jungles, oceans, beaches, carriers, deserts, winiters, summers, faster airplanes, a better bad guy, Pearl Harbor treachery, American glories, and more U.S. involvement. That makes for better stories and nicer backgrounds.

[RustyK94]

I don't think trench warfare had a certain romance to it as other periods of history did. Speaking from a military perspective.

[romac]

There really just wasn't as many "epic" moments in WWI. Hell it was a strange mix of warfare, technology was advancing but there was also still active cavalry units iirc.

[quexos]

Originally Posted by Tadji Malik

Why limit yourself to trenches and the birth of the airplane? WWII had jungles, oceans, beaches, carriers, deserts, winiters, summers, faster airplanes, a better bad guy, Pearl Harbor treachery, American glories, and more U.S. involvement. That makes for better stories and nicer backgrounds.

hmm Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 don't look too glorious a deed to me ...
Shame on you Enolagay for ever and ever !

[zany6669]

There are in fact quite a number of good World War 1 films, one simply has to look.

Just a few below:

Gallipolli - Australian WW1 film starring Mel Gibson from around the Mad Max days, still one of the best war films ever made.
Paths of Glory - As previously mentioned, directed by Kubrick.
Johnny got his gun - Great adaptation of the novel, really shows the potential consequences of trench warfare and shelling.
All Quiet on the Western Front - 2 versions, classic German anti war film from the 30s and English language adaptation from the late 70s with Ian Holm and Ernest Borgnine.
A Very Long Engagement - Wonderful French film from the director of Amelie about the French experience of the war.
Lawrence of Arabia - You may have heard of this film, one of the all time classics, nuff said...
Joyeux Noël - Very recent French Film on the subject
The Lighthorsemen - Another good Australian film about fighting in the Middle East during WW1.
The Grand Illusion - Jean Renoir's classic.


Not to mention the numerous films that simply feature a segment set in World War 1 like "Legends of the Fall" or even "12 Monkeys"....

The list goes on and on but a little research and you will discover that, unsurprisingly for the first real large scale modern war, there are many more films that deal with the subject.

It is ridiculous to maintain that there are no good or compelling stories from World War 1, nothing could be further from the truth. The Great War as it is also known saw the first air combat, the end of the age of the horse, the first mechanised warfare, the end of the Imperial age and was fundemental to the shaping of the modern world. There was around 40 million casualties in the war, including around 20 million deaths (military and civilian), around 70 million men fought in total and countless more were touched by the war in some way. That's a lot of potential for storytelling in my book...

Anyway, hope this helps point you in the right direction.

[209Mason]

Originally Posted by zany6669

Joyeux Noël - Very recent French Film on the subject

+1 I was just going to pust that until I saw yours