ABSTRACT
The First World War is the first cinematic war, its onset chiming with the necessary technology becoming widely available. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was unusually blinkered in its commitment to controlling all information, not least an incipient photographic record of trench warfare. At the dawn of the analogue age, with the advent of 'industrial war', the utilisation of new technology generated results inconceivable half a century earlier. These disproportionate consequences were especially evident in the second half of the Great War, and cinema confirms both sides' endeavours to maximise quantity and optimise quality. The past twenty-five years have seen an explosion of scholarly interest in the filming of the First World War, digital technology facilitating a – literally – clearer picture of what contemporary audiences saw on the cinema screen. The war's immediate impact on the cinema industry was profound at every level, whether production, distribution or exhibition.
