Fight for the Dardanelles (1915)

Directed by

F. Percy Smith

Genre

documentary film, silent film, propaganda film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

9 min

How it feels

This silent documentary uses stop-frame animation and cardboard cutouts to map the military situation in the Dardanelles during World War I. It explains troop movements and naval deployments with intertitles and cotton wool explosions.

informativeeducationaldatedstylizedpropagandisticdetachedinstructional

What happens

Fight for the Dardanelles (1915) is a British silent documentary film, directed by F. Percy Smith and produced and edited by Charles Urban. Percy Smith was known as a recorder of nature. He was a pioneer in the field of scientific documentaries. During World War I, however, he used his talents to support the Allied war effort. He shot aerial views of battlefields for British forces and made several animated films. One such was Fight for the Dardanelles. The film uses stop-frame animation to create maps on the screen, and showed the then-current military situation in the Dardanelles, using various maps to assist understanding. Small cardboard cut-outs show the deployment of men and ships. Intertitles explain tactics, and shelling explosions are illustrated by clouds of cotton wool. The techniques used in the film are considered primitive today; however, they satisfied a need at the time for details of the war. The film is currently available in 16mm film format. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Britain Prepared (1915)
• The History of the World's Greatest War (1915)
• The Victory Leaders (1919)
• Defenders of the British Empire (1914)
• The Cause of the Great European War (1914)
• Sea Dreams (1914)
• Incidents of the Great European War (1914)
• The Battle of the Somme (1916)