The Guns of August

The Guns of August is an exceptional documentary that uses rare archive footage to tell the story of World War I. This movie shows the rivalry between royalty in Europe that leads up to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro Hungary, and the start of the “War to End All Wars”. It also shows the unsuccessful attempts to avoid the war that followed. The movie continues and shows the Germans as they invade Belgium and France, and how unskilled leaders on both sides resulted in the deaths of millions of men.

The Guns of August is a movie that was based on the book written by Barbara W. Tuchman. Therefore, it is very historically accurate. Another reason that it is so accurate is the fact that there were no actors used in this movie. It was an informative documentary, and the main purpose of the movie was to convey the European events of World War I to the audience. Another reason I thought this movie was so interesting was because we rarely see or hear about the European side of the war. It was fascinating to see the obstacles that Europeans faced and their perspective on World War I.

The movie begins with the melancholy scene of European royalty as they gather for the funeral of Edward VII of Great Britain in 1910. It then continues with shots of various rulers and important things they accomplished during the next four years in history. Although this part of the movie was very accurate and informative, I found that parts of this movie were boring because it only presented the facts. Most historical movies are forced to change some of the historical events in order to make the movie more interesting. However, Guns of August did not do this. The movie was rarely dramatic or exciting, and I therefore found myself getting bored.