Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies

Disappointing exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at war movies, why they are made, why we watch them, how they are made.

I say disappointing because the exhibition wasn’t big enough! There was so much that they could have covered that it felt that they’d only tackled a small proportion of it. Also at times I wasn’t sure if they were telling the stories of the films or the events they were representing. Everything was good and there were some great objects which I’ll come to but I felt if they’d tried to say a bit less they would have said it better.

Now the good stuff! The show started with the documentary that was made of the Battle of the Somme which was shown in cinemas within weeks of the battle. It revolutionised film going, changing it from a lower class leisure pursuit to a having mass appeal all levels of society went to see it hoping to spot family members at the front.

I loved the middle section about the people in the films looking at the actors, directors and their subjects. I loved a Marlene Dietrich dress and shoes with a photo of here wearing it singing to the troops. There was an interesting section on Lawrence of Arabia not only looking at the iconic David Lean film but also a documentary made in 1918 with footage of Lawrence himself.

It was nice to see modern films about the Second World War features with interesting displays how D-Day and Dunkirk were recreated for Saving Private Ryan and Atonement. Also fascinating to see that the film Battle of Britain used footage of slum clearances to represent blitzed cities!

The last room looked at how films were received and talked about how some films have shaped our impression of some conflicts including talking about how “Oh What a Lovely War” changed our view of the First World War. There was also a nice section on merchandising.

So having said I found this show disappointing I seem to have managed to write a lot about it!

Closes on 8 January 2017
 

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