Landships II

Have now watched it a few times. It ticks all the usual boxes, for good or bad. The battle scenes are mostly gruesome, although the "human wave" attacks are, as often, rather overdone, and are similar to those in the original 1930 version and Paths of Glory, etc, with infantry out in the open, swarming all over the battlefield.

The place and time are: Champagne, which is fine. Saint-Chamonds were in action there late September/early October. But the battle seems to be happening simultaneously with the signing of the Armistice, which isn't accurate. However, it makes its point, so it's kind of forgiveable.

As noted elsewhere, the flamethrower scene is implausible but pretty ghastly. All the battle scenes are graphic and squalid - lots of mud, and men being shot/crushed/drowned/buried/blown apart.

I could go on for a long time analysing the historical accuracy, attention to detail, and, of course, how faithful it is to the book. All I'll say is that the ending is different from that of 1930 film's.

So to the Saint-Chamonds.

Someone has, clearly, done his/her homework, and has produced convincing replicas and placed them in more or less the correct historical context. A selection of screen grabs below.

At least 5 apparent Saint-Chamonds are visible, but I don't know how many are real and how many are special effects. The one we can be certain is real is a mock-up of an Early Type Saint-Chamond mounted on what I'm told is a Soviet/Russian BMP (Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty meaning "infantry fighting vehicle.") It correctly has the Rimailho cannon.

The tanks pass over the German trenches and one is seen to squash to death a German soldier. After the tanks have crossed, the surviving Germans pursue them. A Saint-Chamond can be seen in the distance, knocked out and on fire. A German pushes a stick grenade into the track of one tank, and the explosion immobilises the tank (although the track can be seen intact soon afterwards). A German then pushes a stick grenade into the tank through one of the Hotchkiss machine-gun mounts. I'm not entirely sure that that would be possible, but the grenade goes off, and two French tankers bale out and are shot by the Germans.

That's the last real action from the tanks, apart from a few glimpses in the background. Our protagonist moves on to witness yet more horrors.

Feel free to discuss these or any other matters relating to the film.