The 1916 Battle of the Somme remains the most famous battle of World War I, remembered for its bloodshed and its limited territorial gains. What is often overlooked, however, is the literary importance of the Somme: more writers and poets fought in it than in any other battle in history. Narrated by Michael Sheen, War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme details the experiences of the poets and writers who served in the battle. The work of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg and JRR Tolkien (who arrived at the Western Front with ambitions to be a poet) was informed and transformed by the battle. Taken together, their experiences allow us to see this dreadful historical event through multiple points of view. The film uses animation, documentary accounts, surviving artefacts, battalion war diaries and the landscape itself to reconnect this literature to the events that inspired it.
Sebastian Barfield
Director
Michael Sheen
Narrator (voice)
Peter Barton
Himself - First World War Historian
Max Egremont
Himself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon
Christophe Fricker
Himself - Literary Historian
John Garth
Himself - Author, Tolkien and the Great War
William Graves
Himself - Son of Robert Graves
Jean Moorcroft Wilson
Herself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon
Paul O'Prey
Himself - Editor, Selected Poems: Robert Graves
Jonathon Riley
Himself - Royal Welch Fusiliers
They Shall Not Grow Old77%
20 Days in Mariupol80%
Korengal66%
For Sama82%
Restrepo72%
Father Soldier Son65%
Padomju stāsts73%
The Battle of San Pietro61%
Audrey71%
2000 Meters to Andriivka79%
The Bloody Hundredth71%
The Age of Stupid65%
Why We Fight: Prelude to War65%
Last Days in Vietnam73%
Five Came Back79%
We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company73%
Alone in the Wilderness79%
Let There Be Light73%
Virunga79%
The Making of Star Wars70%
