War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme

War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme

89 mins | Documentary, War, History, TV Movie | Nov. 15, 2014

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.

War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme

89 mins | Documentary, War, History, TV Movie | Nov. 15, 2014

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.
Producers BBC, BBC Arts, Parapet Productions
Original title War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme
Directors Sebastian Barfield
Writers

Cast

Michael Sheen

as Narrator (voice)

Peter Barton

as Himself - First World War Historian

Max Egremont

as Himself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon

Christophe Fricker

as Himself - Literary Historian

John Garth

as Himself - Author, Tolkien and the Great War

William Graves

as Himself - Son of Robert Graves

Jean Moorcroft Wilson

as Herself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon

Paul O'Prey

as Himself - Editor, Selected Poems: Robert Graves

Jonathon Riley

as Himself - Royal Welch Fusiliers

Jon Stallworthy

as Himself - Editor, The Oxford Book of War Poetry

Nigel Steel

as Himself - Principal Historian, Imperial War Museums

Michael Symmons Roberts

as Himself - Poet

Charlotte Zeepvat

as Herself - Biographer, W.N. Hodgson