The Guns of August

"The Guns of August" is one of the most thorough historical accounts of World War I. The film is based on a 1962 book of the same title by American journalist, historian and author, Barbara Tuchman. The book earned her the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, and was made into this 99-minute documentary film in 1964 The book was highly popular and made the New York Times bestseller list for ten months. The documentary used news film collected from the U. S. and many European countries.

It may seem odd to many in modern times that a book and film about WW I should be so popular in the early 1960s. That time was much closer to World War II when most of the world's population had memories of the most destructive war in history. And, it was a time when the Cold War was at fever pitch, after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. But this documentary story did something more and better than any previous history of World War I had done. It delved deeply into the background and the situation of world politics, particularly in Europe, of the several years before the war.

The opening prologue in the film sets the stage. "The year 1914. Millions of peaceful and industrious people were hounded into a war by the folly of a few all-powerful leaders. The war was in no way inevitable. But the results determined the shape of the world in which we live today (1964)." And, "The innocence of the people was in the streets of Europe. The guilt was in the Cabinets."

Fritz Weaver narrates this documentary. It includes more news clips of European royalty and prominent leaders than any film I can recall ever having seen. Winston Churchill will be the most familiar to people in the 21st century. But, in their day, many others were frequently in the news headlines. The list includes prominent English, French, German, Prussian, Austrian, Belgian, and Russian aristocrats and officers. So, heir-apparent of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand is here, as well as Austrian Emperor Franz-Josef, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, German Emperor Wilhelm II, and a host of other statesmen, generals and other military commanders. Prominent females of the period are here also. Most noted among these are the assassinated and exiled Russian royalty - Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna, Romanov, Maria Romanov, and Anastasia Romanov.

History and war buffs especially should find this film very interesting.

Although World War I is probably my second favorite historical subject (behind you can probably guess what), its early history and how it all began is thoroughly convoluted and pretty confusing. Because of this, along with the fact that such an important event is already documented countless times, I won't really bother explaining the nuances of various political events leading up to the war's outbreak. Instead, I'm going to focus on what I liked and found interesting about this film, and will be making some use of The Great War as a comparison. The latter is a series that ran on British television around the same time this film was made, and is essentially World at War but for ww1: it features a lot of war footage, a narration explaining the significance of onscreen events, and even interviews with former servicemen. When compared with this series, The Guns of August is almost too simplistic. It goes over the events leading up to the war in great detail, but after the first few months, just jumps ahead way too fast, almost like they were obligated to cover the whole war but didn't really have time. Fritz Weaver, who was cast in a particularly excellent episode of Combat (with Vic Morrow) a few years after this, narrates the film. The film does a good job of conveying how ww1, contrary to public opinion, was not unavoidable. European powers and monarchs would be given many chances to peacefully defuse a situation that lead to disaster, but because of repeated exchanges of ultimatums, over 8 million people had to die. As you've probably heard already, the event usually credited with starting world war 1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo in 1914. Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a very old and ailing state that would generally perform poorly during the conflict. Ignoring pleas from his advisors not to take the trip (for fear of his safety), he rode in an open topped car through the streets with his wife, Sophie. As Ferdinand's convoy stalled on a side street in the city after making a wrong turn, a young man named Gavrilo Princip, nervously fingering a semi-auto handgun in his pocket, made his move. He stepped out of the crowd of admirers and fired two shots point blank into Ferdinand and his wife, but was seized by cops before he could kill himself. Within minutes, the archduke and his wife were dead; peace in Europe died with them. Following this, austria-hungary bullied the Serbian government into accepting a very harsh and demanding ultimatum, in which austria-hungary basically demanded war. Although serbia accepted the terms, austria-hungary declares war anyway. The huge Russian Empire to the east, under Tsar Nicholas II, honors its pact with serbia to act as a vanguard for all Slavic peoples and declares war on austria-hungary. From here, things spiral out of control and alliances and promises of military assistance force european nations to rapidly declare war on one another. The film goes over how despite russia's seemingly endless reserves of manpower, they attacked german positions in East Prussia (now Poland) and lost nearly half an entire army thanks to german forces commanded by Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. One of the russian commanders involved shot himself. In the west, France and its generals determine the easiest way to subdue germany (if they are attacked by them) is to immediately cross the Rhine with a huge army and capture Berlin. The germans on the other hand favor the Schlieffen Plan: a tactic that involved the german military invading french territory via neutral Belgium, getting behind Paris, and then swinging down and to the left in order to capture it. As germany puts the plan into action, they let the belgian public know that their only concern should be to step out of the way and let them take over their country. By stating their intentions, the germans feel any destruction they cause is justifiable. Belgium gives up its neutral status and fights germany, but is quickly overwhelmed and has its huge forts blasted to pieces. As punishment for destroying their own railroads and other facilities to slow the germans down as much as possible, german forces engage in an extended period of complete sadism against belgian civilians, killing the young, the sick, and whoever else opposes them. Ironically, the sheer brutality the germans display, meant to shock the world into giving up to them, backfires on them. French forces manage to stop the german advance in the famous Battle of the Marne, and both sides are soon forced into trench warfare: a very static type of fighting where the factions dig trenches and are separated from each other by a desolate stretch of land. Trench warfare is largely to blame for ww1's reputation as a total bloodbath, as men attempting to attack enemy positions in huge waves would often be killed in mere seconds by machine gun fire. Neither side can make progress, and neither one gives in. This is a general overview of what went on during the first few weeks of the world's costliest war (up until that time). Other people have been saying this film is propaganda, as Weaver's narration kind of makes you feel pity towards Princip and his actions that ultimately caused the war. A subject as massive as world war 1 is simply too big to explain in only 100 minutes, so they had to no doubt cut a lot of things. What The Guns of August offers however is still extremely important to see, such as footage of the carnage at Verdun, in which the french and germans battered each other for almost an entire year until almost a million were dead, or scenes of Lenin giving a speech to russia's mistreated underclass. As someone who avidly reads history, I've seen these types of things many times, but some of the footage is new to me. Either way, The Guns of August is an important part of history in and of itself, as it shows how europe (and eventually most of the world) was sucked into a terrible symphony of destruction that nobody was prepared for.

This documentary tries, but falls short of the quality of Barbara Tuchman's book. Worth watching anyway for the film footage. I am perplexed by the reviewer below who sees Ms. Tuchman as a revisionist and this film as propaganda. I do not view her that way at all. I think there is great value in history and that the original book was well researched and written. If only more world leaders would read it, the world would be a better and safer place. I remember John Kennedy said he read it and that it influenced his thinking. So, Goofy, you can bend over, kiss you little self and be glad he did because you came within a hair's breath of becoming a little puff of white ash during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This is an awesome way to get an introduction to the causes of the First World War.

From the death of Edward VII, through the Balkan wars and morrocon crisis, to the assasination of Franz Ferdinand this film goes through them all.

The recovered footage is incredible.

The descriptions of the central players are bang on.

The bizarre idea that Barbara Tuchman hated Germans is of course ridiculous.

They did start the war. They did commit unspeakable atrocities in Belgium and France.

The facts are the facts and no other documentary explains them so well.

Also, it is available on dvd now and the best transfer is from media outlet.com.

This is the movie version of Tuchman's anti-German propaganda book.Tuchman was a rabid German hater and her book(and this movie)are little more than a replay of old allied propaganda from the war years.As history it is worthless.Turn the sound off and look at the old film footage.It is a shame that after all these years we still can't get an honest and objective look at these important events.Instead we are stuck with the same propaganda lies that our grandparents were fed 90 years ago.Even 70 years after historians like Harry Elmer Barnes and Sidney Fay totally demolished these faulty theories many people still believe them,probably because they have been trained since youth to unquestioningly believe any anti-German fairy tale that's trotted in front of them.WWI has been over for almost 90 years isn't it time we called off the propaganda campaign?