Watch 14-18: The Noise & the Fury For Free

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A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"The Noise and the Fury" is a sadly undiscovered masterpiece which deserves to get maximum media play during the 100th anniversary of November 11, 1918.The IMDB description "A documentary of World War I, exploring how soldiers accepted their conditions in the trenches when no clear reason had been given for the fight." in no way prepares the viewer for the sense of utter hopelessness the masterful narrator immediately instills in the viewer. His studiously monotonous voice haunts the soul as deeply as the moving imagery of total man-made destruction unfolding on the screen.There is (fortunately) no great discussion here of the mind-numbing human and logistical statistics of industrialized carnage in the killing zone of modern accurate long-distance artillery around the inescapably immobile barbed wire entangled front lines. Just the sheer hopelessness. A country, patriotic duty and death. In the millions.And a glimpse of the fatally flawed and incompetent leadership when confronted with such pending, insecapable calamity on a daily basis.Their lives were worthless. That was the good news. The rest (and fate) is just too cruel.The reasons behind WW1 are far more complex and deep-seated than an assassination in Sarajevo. Germany did NOT have to go to war on Austria's side. But the German High Command, forever fearful of Russia's intentions and its vast army then modernizing, did not want to fight a war on two fronts. They were also very conscious of the fact that any 'modern' war with vast armies opposing each other must be won fast BEFORE the other could mobilize, decided with the Schlieffen Plan they could move a million men by train to the borders with France = attacked. Hoping to beat the French then destroy the Russians.The plan called for 1.3 MILLION men to attack France through Belgium and Alsace. Only 930,000 were moved by rail. They advanced fast to within sight of the outskirts of Paris. Then were halted (and this is the most depressing part the film spares us) because although the plans used trains for transport so far, for the final 60 miles it became impossible to move new troops and supplies to the front except by horses and carts. That could not be done but thousands of horses were worked to death in a matter of weeks trying. In the war itself millions were used, abused and died in the most horrific circumstances which the film glances over probably because of a darth of documentary film material on equine destruction.Germany lost the First Battle of The Marne and withdrew to a defensive position = the one thing they did not want to do, because it was the start of a war of attrition.Their entire attack plan failed because of a fatal logistic flaw: dependence on horses and carts. And within six weeks the Chief of the German General Staff Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Younger went to Kaiser Wilhelm and supposedly told him Germany had lost the war. Only SIX WEEKS in and they knew they had lost the war, but could have never imagined the mindless horrors of destruction and futility that awaited them as this film shows.That Germany essentially lost the Second World War for the very same reason is almost unbelievable. Because the majority of their army still relied on horses and carts for transport (especially in Russia). This knowledge simply compounds the sobering reality that this film leaves us with - we are governed by those least competent to command. They were then. They still are

This meditation on the horror of WW1 uses an astounding variety of archival film, with added sound effects and color (not always) in ways that take you deeply into the mind of a French soldier, who narrates the events of the Great War. The English language version I viewed had world weary and poignant sounding English narrator. I've seen many WW1 documentaries including six hour series but I've never more deeply felt the futility and stupidity of the military leaders responsible for the carnage; though the narrator admits that the soldiers willingly marched off to their deaths. The archival film scenes always support the content of the narrator, and are sometimes cleverly viewed by crowds of soldiers at the time; with many scenes including soldiers operating vintage hand-crank film projectors; where the filmmakers found these films I have no idea, but they must have screened much of everything available in France - and there must be miles of WW1 film. If you are even mildly interested in the Great War & the 100th anniversary, this is a must see.