Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget (1935)

Lest We Forget was Canada’s official Great War film. It sparked controversy when it was shown across the country in 1935, during the midst of the worst depression in Canadian history, and with a growing anxiety over the increased aggression of international dictators. The film provided a contested venue for what the Great War had meant to a generation of Canadians. But this was no ordinary war film. Officially sanctioned and constructed from archival footage, the story of Canada’s war was told in 100 minutes, from the opening phases through to the grim fighting on the Western Front, and including those who supported the soldiers from home. Many journalists, politicians, and veterans called Lest We Forget the most authentic film to have appeared since the end of the war, especially in contrast to Hollywood fictional productions.

Date of release
1935-03-09
TMDB
6.4 / 10 (5)
Runtime
1h 52m
Director
Frank Badgley, W.W. Murray

Casting

Interesting facts

Lest We Forget (1935) was the first feature-length documentary film with sound to be made in Canada. Written, directed and edited by Frank Badgley, who was then the Director of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, and W.W. Murray, with music by Edmund Sanborn and narrated by Rupert Caplan. A compilation, 10-reel film recounting Canada’s role in the First World War, it is fast-paced and has a verbose narration but was well received by critics and audiences at the time. The Bureau was the precursor to the National Film Board of Canada.

Production

In his 1974 history of the CGMPB published by the Canadian Film Institute, Charles Backhouse wrote that, "With enthusiasm the Bureau began the mammoth task of preparing its first major sound production, an epic 10-reel history of the Canadian armed forces in World War I.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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