Faces… The Battle of the Somme (1916), Royal Festival Hall with Laura Rossi, BBC Concert Orchestra

It was 100 years to the day since the ending of the Battle of a Somme, one of the bloodiest seasons of the war to end all wars in which over one million men lost their lives in an almost inconceivable slaughter.

Laura Rossi’s Great Uncle Fred fought in the battle and lived to tell the tale as a photo with his young great niece showed. I believe my Great Uncle Alec was also involved and whilst he survived the shrapnel embedded in his skull claimed him well before his time. So many have connections still and it was Laura’s that helped inform her moving and delicately structured score.

The film originally came with a lists of suggested contemporary songs which Stephen Horne plays on the IWM DVD. Not all of these songs fit the mood and Laura’s score was intended to provide a stronger musical narrative and more emotionally-nuanced accompaniment for a film with a loose and highly varied structure in tone and form. It bridged the gap of a century and made me anxiously scan all those faces partly to pay respect but also to see them as more than just history: then and now, life and death; the delusion of safety simply blown away.

The Lancashire Fusiliers take a break

The Battle of the Somme covers everything from propagandist battle preparations, shell-polishing bravado, staged battle scenes to actual battlefield advance and devastation. It also looks death hard in the face in lingering shots initially of the German fallen and then in unbearably poignant moments of the allied troops passing whilst in the midst of life: sitting or grasping for safety – death whilst unaware or exhausted and death by surprise as gas passes over or machine gun fire rips your life away in shocked seconds.

Not once does Laura’s score over-play its hand and throughout she evokes pride, pity, hope and sadness with perfect and delicately wrought pitch.

The BBC Concert Orchestra is able to convey this musical meaning with a precision of their own: expert players conducted in style by John Gibbons who gracefully acknowledged his 80-piece ensemble section by section at the final bows. The room was filled with raucous respect.

So, Royal Festival Hall, after Gance’s epic reconstruction, tonight a real war or at least one portrayed in brave documentary form by the ground-breaking efforts of Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell.

IWM's Senior Curator Dr Toby Haggith introduced and reminded the audience of the British Army’s first day casualties of 57,470 men – enough to fill this Hall over eight times… The Times hailed the film as a documentary that in “years to come” would be preserved by historians to show what this conflict was really like.

So it was tonight and, having watched the DVD some yearsago, I have to say the combination of music, audience and screen was even more affecting. Laura’s aim was to let the images speak for themselves and there really is no need to emotionally enhance the faces of optimistic Tommies thrilled to be on camera and still to face the actuality of war and even later, captured Germans lark about and battle-drained troops cheer for the home front videos. They had spirit, all of them, they had hope.

Royal Field Artillery and mascot

The film felt more cohesive with the elevated experience of the live score pulling our attention into line.

Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell were no doubt kept under tight reign and military intelligence not only edited their 8,000 feet of film but wrote the title cards. This all gives the resultant film the look and language of military discipline and yet the people cannot be scripted in the same way.

Part one shows the preparation and the rather deliberate stacking of those very potent shells – a point needed to be made after earlier “quality issues” – the massing of cheery troops and potent hardware.

Friend and foe pose for the camera

Then comes the bombardments and shots of so many Howitzers of increasing size from 4.7 inches to 15 with the mammoth “Grandmother” - you really do wonder how anything could have survived – a similar mistake to the one made at the time…

The huge Hawthorne Ridge mine explosion is shown as filmed by Malin and there is also later footage showing the 40-foot deep crater left by the Lochnagar mine whose crater remains unfilled on the battlefield to this day.

The 40 foot crater

Then comes the attack and, the reconstructed scramble over the top aside, most of the footage is genuine including an actual charge, in which you can clearly see the men flooding forward – a moment when I always hold my breath and image just for a second what it could have been like.

These were our great and grand-parents all drawn from Lancashire, Dorset, Scotland, Sussex and Kent offering up their lives for the sake of a country they passionately believed in. With our modern everyday petty gripes, we should simply watch this film and note down every last similarity… it won’t take long.

The Royal Field Artillery and the dead at Mametz

Malin and McDowell didn’t just make a propaganda film for 1916 but one that can still stir today: the first war documentary and the first portrayal of the death that glory costs. They focused on the faces of soldiers from both sides and the hope was that many of the watching hoards at home – reputedly over 20 million watched the film: almost half the population – would spot a loved one. How many did we can only guess and, as to how many lived… we can only fear for the worst.

More than anything this is a film about the bravery, trust and loyalty of the common man: people haven’t changed in a century but the prospects for hope possibly have.

The Royal Fusiliers after the opening battle

The Battle of the Somme was being screened as part of Somme100 Film which involves 100 screenings of the film and score across the country and even into Europe: don’t miss it… we should indeed never forget because, as the world turns the same mistakes return and human misery will always be the end product.

The Imperial War Museum’s DVD featuring the restored print and Laura Rossi’s music is available from their shop. It includes Stephen Horne’s alternative score as well as a commentary and interview with Roger Smither, Keeper of the IWM’s Film and Photograph Archive, as well as missing scenes and a 36-page booklet. 

One for the Kaiser

Anthem for Doomed Youth… The Battle of the Somme (1916)

"Crowded audiences...were interested and thrilled to have the realities of war brought so vividly before them…" The Times, August 22, 1916

This film was intended to form a bridge between the Western Front and the Home Front. The War Office had only lifted a ban on filming the war in late 1915 and what started off as disparate reporting of the battle ended up as an attempt to create a more coherent narrative.

Whilst some of this was “reconstructed” (the famous “over the top” sequence was in fact the only such fiction) and otherwise moulded to fit with scenes moved around chronologically, there is no doubt that the results are still haunting to this day. How could they fail to be?

British soldiers charge across No Mans' Land

At one point the filming picks up the chaos of the actual charge as soldiers run across no mans land, it’s difficult to make out the pattern initially but then you see the direction they are headed and you start to make out the falling bodies… These were amongst the first casualties on the most calamitous day in British military history: the 1st July 1916, when 19,240 men died and a further 38,230 were injured.

In an age when the filming of conflict at close quarters is almost taken for granted it is hard to imagine the impact of The Battle of the Somme on contemporary audiences. The Great War was two years into its bloody course and the main source of information would have been the written reports in newspapers. Here suddenly, were images of huge explosions, muddy trenches and the flesh and bone of men giving their all for the country. Here was what was actually happening to the husbands, sons and brothers of those left at home.

Geoffrey Malins (left on camera), John McDowell (right)

This was a calculated risk on behalf of the War Office, the film was intended to have huge propaganda value and so it proved with millions queuing to watch it on record runs as it became the most successful British film of the era with over 20 million tickets sold…almost half the country watched it.

Historians may argue over the authenticity of some of the shots and, of course, the film was “censored”… this was Great Britain at war in 1916. With the casualties mounting and no clear end in sight, the War Office needed a demonstration of the courage and superiority of the British army… the folks back home needed to know that the war was being won and they needed to see how their friends and relatives were fighting and dying…

Whatever the intent and the restrictions placed upon them, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell’s film is an incredible slice of authentic history. The two men showed a lot of courage as well as technical ingenuity starting at opposite ends of the 16 mile long front and ended up in the south where the allied push had been most successful.

The film starts with the build up as soldiers and munitions are moved into position. The men are shown marching happily to the front, waving at the camera pleased to be given a possible connection to home. How heart-breaking it must have been to grieving audiences back home who watched in hope of seeing a loved one.

The action then shifts to show the intense artillery bombardment that presaged the battle over the last week of June. Bigger and bigger guns are shown culminating in a mighty 16 inch Howitzer. The workings of these infernal machines is shown in some detail, the ground shaking as round after round is despatched to the German lines.

The huge Hawthorne Ridge mine explosion was filmed by Malin and later footage showing the 40 foot deep crater left by the Lochnagar mine showed how destructive these weapons could be. The latter crater remains unfilled on the battlefield to this day.

Hawthorne Ridge mine

The preparation of the soldiers becomes more intense as we see the trenches at an area termed “White City” (the Brits neutralising fearsome foreign soil by using familiar terms), then follows Malin’s genuinely chilling footage as the soldiers engage. There was much debate at the time over the validity of showing the actual combat and loss of life but if seeing the reality doesn’t shake us from any complacent view of war then what will? This was not the intent of the time, but they wanted to show what the men were actually experiencing in the name of God and country.

The staged sequence in which a few dozen men clamber over a low trench and run across the barbed-wire field showed closer up what was actually happening all over the battle field.

The remainder of the film shows the aftermath of the initial push with the injured being patched up – one man with entry and exit wounds clearly visible on his arm  and again on his right shoulder: a lucky survivor. Captured German soldiers are also shown in their hundreds most just glad to be alive.

But the film makers also paused to show the bodies of the dead and there are some surprisingly lingering shots of solders, frozen where they fell. This was one element which the authorities might have miscalculated and future propaganda was more guarded.

At the end, the soldiers are shown to re-group and prepare to re-enter the fray - an upbeat conclusion (mostly using footage from before the battle) for what was only the first week or so of a battle that raged for months well into the autumn. The prisoners of war are shipped off in trains: they were the lucky ones.

There’s an extraordinary shot (McDowell?) showing the devastation around Mametz, as the camera pans almost 360 degrees to show buildings reduced to rubble. It looks like a vision of Hell, as does much of the film.

By the end of the battle in November, the allies had gained about six miles at a cost of 623,907 casualties against 465,000 for Germany…over 300,000 lives were lost from both sides. How many of the smiling soldiers seen in this film made it though?

The Royal Fusiliers after the first day

Hostilities resumed the following year once the weather and ground improved.

The Battle of the Somme could only give a flavour of the scale of this loss and it succeeded in showing the humanity, providing the template for future reporting. It was inscribed into the UNESCO “Memory of the World” register in 2005. A second film, The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks, was released in 1917 showing the latter stages of the Battle - a war within a war.

The sunken road... 20 minutes later a German shell landed on this spot

I watched the Imperial War Museum’s DVD which features a restored print and specially written orchestral score from Laura Rossi. This was used for the restoration premier on the Southbank and does a splendid job of connecting the film with modern sensibilities.

There’s also a fascinating alternative score from an ensemble led by Stephen Horne which features a medley of contemporary music as recommended at the time. As close as it’s possible to get to a restored “soundtrack” for a silent film, this gives a moving insight into the mood the film distributors wanted to create.

Both musicians are interviewed and the extras also include a commentary and interview with Roger Smither, Keeper of the IWM’s Film and Photograph Archive, as well as missing scenes and a 36 page booklet. It’s available from the Imperial War Museum direct or through all good online retailers.

Lochnagar crater and memorial