History in Movies: World War 1 | 1917, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lawrence of Arabia

World War 1 has left an undeniable mark on the world, and in many ways shaped it, even though it is relatively under-represented on screen. It could be because of the lack of clear narrative for the war, the anti-Hollywood elements in trench wars and lack of goodies and baddies, or the fact that it preceded a much more interesting and important war.

In this History in Movies podcast Gil Kidron welcomes again Dr. Rutger Vos, an evolutionary biologist from Leiden University and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, both in The Netherlands - to talk about World War 1 in movies.

We cover the historical events and their grim portrayal in the Academy Award winning All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) of young German soldiers going from naive patriotic teenagers to cynical and worn-down soldiers in this extremely watchable anti-war classic. We then talk about Sam Mendes' new breathtaking movie, 1917, that follows events on the western front that take place in a few hours, as the horrors and destruction are on display. We cap things off with the Middle Eastern theater, where the British Empire solicits Arab tribes to rise up against the Ottoman Empire, in the all-time great epic, Lawrence of Arabia. Through those movies (and War Horse and Paths of Glory) we try to paint a picture of the war and its depiction in art and popular culture and memory.

Support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/gotacademy

You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and more.

Got Academy on social media:

▸ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqBYWvKcQCk5JbRQbO05X0w
▸ Twitter https://twitter.com/GOT_Academy
▸ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gotacademy/

Rutger Vos on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rvosa