War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme

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.

Country:

United Kingdom

Genre:

Documentary,

History,

TV Movie,

War

Duration:

89 minutes

Year:

2014

Director:

Sebastian Barfield

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Company:

Parapet Productions,

BBC Arts,

BBC

Cast:

Narrator (voice)

Himself - First World War Historian

Himself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon

Himself - Literary Historian

Himself - Author, Tolkien and the Great War

Crew:

Director

Commissioning Editor

Editor

Post-Production Manager

Production Manager