World War I Expert Rates More WWI Battles In Movies | How Real Is It? | Insider

I was an extra on 1917 and got to participate in the battle scene at the end. I just wanted to note that the films historical adviser (really nice guy called Andrew Robertshaw) actually organised us into platoons for the battle charge, and at boot camp we even drilled in how a British platoon would attack in 1917 (bombers, skirmishers, mopper uppers etc). But ultimately this was trumped by Sam Mendes for the sake of spectacle. Its undoubtedly an impressive scene and I get that a film needs a bit of spectacle, but it was a missed opportunity to see British WW1 soldiers act like decently trained and competent fighters, as opposed to a disorganised rabble.

I think the most impressive part about the War Horse charge scene was how the Germans managed to avoid even injuring a single horse.

I'd love to see him react to a clip from the original 1930 adaptation of All Quiet on the West Front. That movie actually had a lot of real WW1 veterans in it who provided the director with a lot of feedback and input on how things should look.

Wish these videos were even longer. I seriously love listening to this man break down all these tiny details that you never think about from older wars/battles. It's endlessly fascinating and he is obviously extremely knowledgeable.

The reason "Paths of Glory" was so accurate: Stanley Kubrick was insanely dedicated to detail, and in 1957 there were still thousands of WWI veterans (many only in their late 50's and early 60's) around to advise.

What the scene in the Blizzard of Souls shows really well is that you don't need artificial drama to make a WW action scene dramatic. All you need to do is sit down and do your research, think about what happened, why it happened the way it did and how the human element would have acted and why and how to present this. If you've got this down, then the scene has already written itself with all the dramatic effect you could have wanted.

Im so proud to be a part of blizzard of souls and have a such high rating. I was one of actors in that particular scene. It was such an adrenaline. When i jumped of from that wooden wall, i even broke my leg. ... The movie had a lot of historians, so it's very historicaly acurate!

I'm glad they gave him the opportunity to point out the historical silliness of War Horse. Cavalry still wasn't completely obsolete at the beginning of WWII, let alone throughout WWI.

0:20 War Horse 2:50 Paths of Glory 5:29 1917 9:35 Blizzard of Souls 13:38 Admiral

I was so excited when is saw that our own Latvian film got reviewed and got a ten. Thank the expert and thank you Insider,for providing this episode for world to see! Film Blizzard of Souls was most viewed film in Latvia for a long time and a great one!

Old movies, while maybe sometimes being less visually stunning and lacking visual effects, they often get historical moments more accurately, that's why I love comparing modern adaptation of old movies with the original one

I love that you can tell when a scene is accurate just by how animated he's getting as he's describing the scene/historical events. Love to see people passionate about their field.

I did my MA thesis on WW1 British Cavalry, and War Horse drove me nuts. For those who are wondering, this is how the British Cavalry of 1914 would have actually handled that German position: 1. One or two of the squadrons present would have dismounted, gotten behind cover, and started putting the camp under rifle and machine gun fire, with one or two squadrons in reserve. 2. While this was happening, they would have called in horse artillery support to soften up the position. 3. Once the position had been softened up with artillery and small arms fire, the squadron(s) in reserve would launch a mounted shock charge from the flank to clear the position. So, what's in the movie is utter nonsense. For reference, see Cavalry Training 1915, Chapter X.

For those of you who haven't read it, Ring of Steel is a masterpiece. It does an excellent job of explaining the war from the German/Austro-Hungarian perspective. The Fortress is narrower in scope, but does an excellent job of describing a battle mostly ignored in the West that ended up having world historical implications. So if Alexander Watson says it, I'm very much inclined to believe it.

"Paths of Glory": Kubrick's technical advisor (and he always listened to them) was a German veteran of the Great War. The troops were cadets from a police academy in Munich. The first rehearsal had the cadets bounding across the field like football players. Then the Herr Major explained to them that if they'd tried that in 1916 they wouldn't have gone ten yards.

I’m glad they took a look at Paths of Glory, which is my favorite Kubrick film out of all his amazing movies. It is one of the most emotionally powerful war films ever made, and the fact that it got such a high rating from a historian is testament I think to the idea that you don’t have to sacrifice authenticity for the sake of storytelling.

i am an aspiring history professor and i just love how excited this expert gets when a film is historically accurate! it truly is so important.

Cavalry in the US Civil War was similarly used. They could fight on horse back, but often they were dismounted infantry, scouting, and could get to a location faster than the infantry so they could set up an initial line of defense such as as Gettysburg, holding off the ANV until the bulk of the Union forces could come up.

Happy to see that Paths of Glory and Blizzard of Souls gain good reception from this historian.

It’s very interesting seeing the depiction of an attack in the 1957 film (before the whole Lions Led By Donkeys trope gained popularity in the 60s) versus depictions after the 1960s where men are shown mindlessly charging enemy lines