FILM OF THE WAR.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18548, 25 November 1925, Page 10

FILM OF THE WAR.

THK BATTLES OF YPRES. FOUR YEARS IN THE SALIENT. (FROH OCa OWN CORKESrCNDEIfr.) LONDON, October .13. An Interesting; British picture is now being ; shown in Loudon, and in due course it will, ; no doubt, find its way U the Dominion, it-1 would seem .an almost impossible accomplish- j ment to film the itory at tho Ypres. Salient, ' but this has been done with commendable realism, and save for a touch of melodrama in the made-up attacks, there is not'much to find fault with. At any. rate, the picture gives to those who never saw the- battlefront a very vivid idea of what modern warfare is like. Possibly, reality wouldi hardly be convincing., A certain dramatic license is necessary. The battle scenes must have been taken at a time when the ground in the Salient, though not much recovered from the four years of constant pounding, was none the less fairly dry. Thus, .we have soldiers running at high speed. It is doubtful if any soldiers in alt the later actions were ever able to run over the shell-pocked, earth and the. clinging mud of the Salient. Again, effectiveness is obtained by concentrating men in groups, which no good leader would have v allowed. Still,, the realism of well extended lines, each man much the colour- of the clay oyer which he toiled, would hardly be convincing in a moving picture. Again, though the bursting sheila of the picture have a remarkable similarity to the real "thing so far as the smoke is concerned, there is no displacement of the earth, and -artillery and infantry are constantly evading annihilation in a way they could never have done in actual warfare, The bright harness of the artillery horses, and the speed at which they make their advances, arc other things that might strike a critic; and last of all, the absence of any mention of New Zealand troops in the actions at Belle Vue Spur and/Passchendaele might, lead a New Zealander to wonder if the .compilers of the picture had studied the campaign carefully. .However, one has to remem-! ber that there' were dthet troops jn-4ront of! Passchendaele at various times.

- the War (>fln« are inrorporatij l jKM^^H i. m-;? , t she btic. though "'f Sjifl^Kß o»!ittiJ the lints. TtuuvS^Hlfl ;.'..;. !i of n' section of ths "w»j^H^| Ypres: tho t:h UivuSS^Hrafl iw.ceai before the : Sira»;-j to siy, there it aUV-WuHH^H liim uu authentic piclcre i troops advancing through a IMhS^^BH :i:ie.i also original, tMlSSB^^^^H i'S,tit>g series dealing with tfttSEJI^H^E ber of isolated tures of the .artUMr, b^m|^D|^^^H