GREAT WAR AND THE SHAPING OF THE 20TH CENTURY, THE: EPISODE FIVE: MUTINY (TV)
Summary
The fifth of eight episodes in this series examining World War I and its effect on the remainder of the twentieth century. The story is told through the use of archival film and photographs, interviews with writers and scholars, and the words of those directly involved in the war. Each episode is comprised of multiple segments that focus on different aspects of the war. This episode begins with the reminiscences of the soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon, who reflects on the lost idealism of the soldiers at the front. The year 1917 finds Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and Russian meddler Rasputin dead, and England's Minister of War Lord Kitchener lost at sea. The Russian army is nearly wiped out at the Eastern Front, and the onset of winter brings harsh difficulties upon the already exhausted soldiers at the Western Front. The segment entitled "The Soldierly Spirit" features the weary, dispirited missives of the soldier and poet Wilfred Owen, who suffers through the winter dug in at the Somme, where soldiers are forced to live crowded among corpses and blasted body parts. The segment "Shell Shock" recounts the psychological damage caused by the new mechanized warfare. The segment "The Talking Cure" concerns the treatment of shell-shocked officers by Sigmund Freud's new technique of psychotherapy. Wilfred Owen undergoes the treatment and writes to his parents of its effects. There Owen encounters and becomes passionately drawn to the work of Siegfried Sassoon, sensing a kindred spirit. Sassoon recounts the flamboyant acts of soldierly daring that earn him the nickname "Mad Jack." Novelist Robert Graves writes of Sassoon's family's grief over the death of Siegfried's brother at Gallipoli. Sassoon is wounded and also suffers from shell shock. He publishes an open letter to his commanding officer decrying the war, which leads to his consignment to the same psychiatric hospital as Owen. The writers become friends and encourage each other's work. The segment "The Officer's Nightmare" details the mutiny of nearly half of France's army. Arrogant French commander Robert Nivelle proclaims his plan for an all-out attack to break out of the trenches and win the war. The plan fails utterly, losing nearly a quarter of a million French soldiers. The morale of the French troops shatters, and wide-scale mutinies break out, with the men refusing to reenter the trenches. Female munitions workers in Paris also go on strike in solidarity with the soldiers. The mutiny results in the replacement of Nivelle by Henri Petain, who improves conditions for all involved and promises to halt suicidal attacks, while also punishing the mutiny's organizers. The segment "Revolution" discusses the Russian revolution of 1917. Half of Russia's army, the world's largest before the war, has been lost. Russian soldiers and citizens alike are miserable and hungry, and Czar Nicholas II leaves Petrograd to personally lead the Russian army. Russian women, required to wait for hours on bread lines in the freezing cold, lead a revolt of citizens in Petrograd demanding food and an end to the war. When troops are ordered to fire on the crowd, the soldiers instead shoot their officers and join with the citizens, sparking a full-fledged revolution. Socialists organize the chaotic riots and seize the city. The Czar's train is halted on the way back to Petrograd, and Nicholas is forced to abdicate. The segment "Bolsheviks" concerns Vladimir Lenin's role in the new Russia. Lenin wishes to topple the fragile democracy established by Alexander Kerensky in the wake of the deposed czar. Kerensky forms the "Women's Battalion of Death" to shame men into defending the new democracy against the Germans. The army collapses in the absence of any centralized authority, and the Russian populace swings to Lenin's cause and his promise of "food, land, and peace." In October, the Bolsheviks seize the Winter Palace and take over, but they have difficulty controlling mobs drunk on the palace's wine stores. Lenin signs an armistice with Germany, ceding over a million square miles of land and sixty-two million people. This program contains commentary by the following individuals: John Keegan, author of "The Face of Battle"; Jay M. Winter of Cambridge University; Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau of the University of Picardie-Jules Verne; Laura Downs of the University of Michigan; and Orlando Figes of Cambridge University. This program is closed-captioned.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,1997.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: November 12, 1996 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:48949
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Communism - Soviet Union; Freud, Sigmund, 18596-1939; Psychotherapy; Soviet Union - History - Nicholas II, 1894 -1917; Soviet Union - History - Revolution - 1917-1921; World War - 1914-1918
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1996
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Blaine Baggett … Executive Producer, Writer
- Jay Winter … Co-Producer, Writer
- David Mrazek … Associate Producer
- Alexandria Levitt-Muzquiz … Associate Producer
- Carl Byker … Series Producer, Director, Writer
- Michelle Morgan … Series Associate Producer
- Alf Penn … Researcher
- Karn Wyatt … Researcher
- Robin Wilder … Researcher
- Michael O'Toole … Researcher
- Mason Daring … Music by
- Salome Jens … Narrator
- Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau … Guest
- Laura Downs … Guest
- Orlando Figes … Guest
- John Keegan … Guest
- Jay M. Winter … Guest
- Jeremy Irons … Voice
- Ralph Fiennes … Voice
- Paul Panting … Voice
- Michael York … Voice
- Gerard Ismael … Voice
- Philippe Smolikowski … Voice
- Lianne Schirmer … Voice
- Friederich Solms … Voice
- Robert Graves
- Alexander Kerensky
- Vladimir Lenin
- Nicholas, Czar, II
- Robert Nivelle
- Wilfred Owen
- Henri Petain
- Siegfried Sassoon