Our Dream Adaptations

What First World War cultural representations would you like to see adapted for the screen?

This month Angus, Chris and Jessica discuss their dream adaptations of novels, short stories and computer games for the big or small screen. Along the way, we explore what makes for a good film versus a good television series, we consider how to overcome the challenge of the Bechdel test in filming the war, and Chris introduces us to the Bertie Wooster/animé scale of realism.

References:

1917, dir. by Sam Mendes (1919)

AG Macdonell, England, Their England (1933)

Akira, dir. by Katsuhiro Otomo (1988)

All Quiet on the Western Front, dir. by Edward Berger (2022)

Capt WE Johns, Biggles Goes North (1939)

Capt WE Johns, Biggles Goes East (1935)

Emma Hanna, The Great War on the small screen (2009)

Ford Madox Ford, Parades End (1924)

Frederic Manning, Her Privates We (1930)

Lupin, Netflix (2021)

Peter Berresford Ellis et al, Biggles!: Life of Captain WE Johns (1993)

Ralph Hale Mottram, The Spanish Farm Trilogy (1930)

RC Sherriff, Journey’s End (1928)

Sapper, Bulldog Drummond (1920)

The Wind Rises, dir. by Hayao Miyazaki (2013

The Monocled Mutineer, dir. by Jim O’Brien (1986)

Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Ubisoft (2014)

Other episodes

A Very Long Engagement

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What does the First World War look like when the story is driven not by battles, but by loss, hope and unanswered

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Can a film about the First World War work without trenches or battles?

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Can a story about soldiers shaking hands in the snow carry a warning for the nuclear age?