THE BATTLES OF CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS - DVD

Product Description

THE BATTLES OF CORONEL AND THE FALKLAND ISLANDS (DVD) The Great War at Sea
A film by Walter Summers

This dramatic reconstruction of two decisive naval battles from the Great War is one of the finest films of the British silent era. The Battle of Coronel, off the coast of Chile, was a triumph for German Admiral von Spee and the first defeat of the British navy for a hundred years, The retaliatory strike was instigated six weeks later by Admiral Fisher, who sent two large battlecruisers, HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible, to the South Atlantic to restore British supremacy.

Filmed on real battleships supplied by the admiralty, this monumental production, like Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925), glories in the power and beauty of the machine. Scrupulously fair in its treatment of the enemy, this stirring film has been restored by the BFI National Archive and is presented with a newly commissioned score composed by Simon Dobson and performed by the Band of her Majesty's Royal Marines.

Special features

• Scoring The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (2014, 12 mins): a consideration of Simon Dobson's new musical accompaniment
• The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands Restoration Demonstration (2014, 6 mins): behind the scenes with the BFI restoration team
• BFI London Film Festival Archive Gala Introduction (2014, 3 mins)
• Sea Dreams (Lancelot Speed, 1914, 6 mins): animation mocking the German Navy
• Naval Review (Will Barker, 1914, 5 mins): King George V reviews the British fleet at Spithead in July 1914

Our Naval Losses (1914, 1 min): moving eulogy to the British ships sunk in the early months of the war

• England Expects (1914, 1 min): scenes of Trafalgar Day at Nelson's Column
• Fully illustrated booklet

UK | 1927 | black and white | silent with music | 106 minutes | DVD9 | PAL | Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 | Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio (448kbps) and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio (320kbps)| Cert PG (Mild war violence) | Region 0 DVD

Review

This exhilarating silent movie from 1927... has enormous confidence and artistry, and the comparison with Sergei Eisenstein is justified. --Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ****

Ambitious, spectacular ... This 1927 British war movie, now BFI-restored, clambers from silent-era oblivion to claim mini-classic status. --Nigel Andrews, Financial Times ****

A stirring, sometimes genuinely thrilling piece of film-making, timed perfectly to coincide with the centenary of these battles. --David Gritten, Saga