The Great War in Popular British Cinema of the 1920s

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Lawrence Napper

   Pages 1-11

3. ‘In the Midst of Peace, We Are at War’: The British Film Trade in 1919

   • Lawrence Napper

   Pages 12-32

4. Battle Reconstructions and British Instructional Films

   • Lawrence Napper

   Pages 33-131

5. Remembrance and the Ambivalent Gaze

   • Lawrence Napper

   Pages 132-158

6. ‘When the Boys Come Home’

   • Lawrence Napper

   Pages 159-194

7. Conclusion

   • Lawrence Napper

   Pages 195-201

8. Back Matter

   Pages 202-234

   PDF

This book discusses British cinema's representation of the Great War during the 1920s. It argues that popular cinematic representations of the war offered surviving audiences a language through which to interpret their recent experience, and traces the ways in which those interpretations changed during the decade.

• Cinema
• War
• Great War
• Film
• British Film
• Remembrance
• Veterans
• Ex-servicemen
• Battle Reconstruction
• Documentary
• Melodrama
• 1920s
• Interwar
• First World War
• Disablilty
• Bigamy
• Impotence
• argue
• bibliography
• cinema
• construction
• experience
• film
• interpret
• knowledge
• language
• peace
• reconstruction
• trade

“This is a well-written, well-researched book. … Napper’s The Great War in Popular British Cinema of the 1920s: Before Journey’s End is highly recommended for graduate students and professionals in the areas of Film History, Communications and Cultural Studies. It stands on its own as an invitation to reexamine the culture of understanding interpretations of film.” (Erwin F. Erhardt, III, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Issue 2, December, 2016)

'Napper challenges assumptions and allows the reader to understand the films discussed on their own terms, and in their own context, allowing them to emerge fresh, stripping away the sometimes crusty layers of critical prejudice and neglect. Both scholarly and accessible, Napper's book is a significant achievement that really brings the culture of 1920s Britain, and its remarkable cinema, to life. A fascinating work by one of the leading scholars of British silent cinema.' - Michael Williams, University of Southampton, UK

• King’s College London, UK

  Lawrence Napper

Lawrence Napper is Lecturer in the Film Studies department of Kings College London, UK. His previous work includes British Cinema and Middlebrow Culture in the Interwar Years.

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