World War I Expert Rates 6 WWI Battles in Movies | How Real Is It? | Insider
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Published 2023-04-04
He discusses the accuracy of trench warfare in "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2022), featuring Daniel Brühl, and "Wonder Woman" (2017), starring Gal Gadot. He also comments on aerial combat and gas masks in "The Red Baron" (2008) and "The Lost City of Z" (2016), starring Charlie Hunnam. Watson analyzes the guns, artillery, tanks, grenades, and other weapons used in "Sajjan Singh Rangroot" (2018) and "Gallipoli: End of the Road" (2013).
Watson is a professor of history at Goldsmiths, University of London, and an expert on World War I. He has written three books on it: "Enduring The Great War," which explores how British and German soldiers coped on the Western Front; "Ring of Steel," about the war from the German and Austria-Hungarian perspective; and "The Fortress," about the siege of Przemyśl on the Eastern Front.
You can find Alexander Watson's books here:
Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918: www.penguin.co.uk/books/133250/ring-of-steel-by-wa…
The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands: www.basicbooks.com/titles/alexander-watson/the-for…
Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918: www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/twe…
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World War I Expert Rates 6 WWI Battles in Movies | How Real Is It? | Insider
All Comments (21)
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I always like when war experts breakdown movies because they confirm my belief that there is no reason to falsely portray war in movies. The reality of war is already dramatic, sensational and insane so why not portray it as historical accurate as possible?
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He is absolutely right about needing to properly portray any war shown in a movie with the most amount of historical accuracy as possible. If you are trying to show what soldiers went through it’s only right you make everything accurate. Still love All Quiet on the Western Front
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I like how he effortlessly reminds us that people in history, and in this case WW1, weren't dumb like modern society likes to portray them. In fact, they quite ingeniously worked around problems, using the means that were available to them at the time.
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One interesting thing in the original 1930 All Quiet On The Western Front is that most of the extras were Germans who had fought in WW1. The director(who was also a WW1 veteran) asked them how they would set up barbed wire for the scene where the characters do it in order to get it right. Also, the famous scene with the French soldier’s hands on the barbed wire was something that one of the German extras had witnessed.
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Ancient & Medieval warfare guy: Ditches, ditches, ditches! WW1 warfare guy: hold my beer
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The tank scene from All Quiet was actually scary. The build up and the reveal was awesome.
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This guy seems like a fun dude. Gets very into the videos and explains what's great and what's not with a lot of excitement. I would love to have him do more videos
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I like how at the end he acknowledges that the significance of a film is not always in it's technical accuracy, even if it's an historical drama. It's a film after all, it's meant to engage and immerse us in a visceral, emotional experience first and foremost.
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All Quiet On The Western Front was freaking intense. One of the most intense war movies I’ve ever seen.
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This one is one of my favourites to date. He really got into it and gave us a proper examination of the movie specifically on its historical accuracy. Well done!
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He impressed me the most at 2:02. Any ordinary viewer would not even given any significance to the church tower, just a random feature in the background... But he has a trained eye that hones in on details that others would miss.
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The tank scene in All Quiet was the first time I felt like I was seeing something new in war films since Saving Private Ryan. Upon first viewing, you could really feel the sheer terror of the German soldiers.
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Good to see WWI finally getting some attention - and nobody better to do so than Alexander Watson! Hope to see him again on this channel soon, he's fantastic. My favourite part is about the Red Baron - he painted his aircraft "because he could". As a 19th century historian, I often see people overinterpreting the tiniest details, to the point it gets absolutely ridiculous. But often the answer, just like it is nowadays, is "they did it because they liked it", end of story.
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This expert was great. I feel like he really understood what he was there for. His explanations were very real but very entertaining. More of him please.
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I just like how quickly and accurately he is able to break down a scene so it feels more like a breakdown than just him watching movie scenes and rating authenticity
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I love his enthusiasm. We need a sequel of him
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Waiting for part 2 featuring 1917, War Horse, Fly Boys, and Lawrence of Arabia.
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Let's hope there's a second video that covers 1917, and maybe the original All Quiet on the Western Front. This one was great.
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It always amazes me that they are willing to spend millions on films but not hire a guy like this to point them in the right direction for kit and tactics of the time period.
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I hope they continue this series for future films like 'Oppenheimer' its always so interesting to hear an educated opinion. The fact an individual can study something so extensively and gain so much knowledge about something, mainly because they can or want to, is just amazing to me!
