Films set in WWI, suitable for 11 year olds?

[ZZZenAgain]

Probably not the best place to post this, couldn't find a good niche for it.

Can anyone think of films set in WWI that would be suitable for 11 year olds, so not so much trench warfare? I can't think of anything. Doesn't have to be films set in the battlefront.

Warhorse is a 12 so might be ok, although I've not seen it to comment.

Lawrence of Arabia is a PG, although maybe not the aspect of WWI you're looking for?

What do you want them for?

DD (7) has watched Atonement and Downton Abbey many, many times.

Sorry, Atonement is WW2!

Titanic is also good for understanding the hierarchy of society pre WW1.

All Quiet on the Western Front is really good. I watched the black and white version, but I think they remade it in colour.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:World_War_I_films_based_on_actual_events

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anti-war_films_about_World_War_I

Rilla of Ingleside is told from the point of view of a teenaged girl in Canada. A number of her friends and relatives die in the war. It helped my dd understand how young people were so swept up in pro-war fervour, how it seemed at first that the war wouldn't last and wouldn't be dangerous, what it was like to be a woman in the war, and how it felt to be one of the few young men who didn't want to fight.

I don't know the film. The book was quite suitable. Even my very sensitive dd could take it at the age of nine, though of course we both cried every time anyone died! But there was nothing nightmare-inducing.

I'd second Warhorse.
It's good at showing how and why young men joined up and I seem to remember a really excellent scene showing a cavalry charge. (Benedict Cumberbatch was in that scene, which may be why I remember it)

Not strictly a film but how do you think they'd react to Blackadder Goes Forth? It's funny (and just the right amount of naughty for an 11yo) but deals cleverly with issues surrounding WW1 and the ending is poignant without being harrowing.

Not a lot of trench warfare in Galipolli, second Blackadder, if you are gonig to do Warhorse and can do do the play not the film.

I'm a history teacher and I use bits of Joyeux Noel with year 8

here

Another vote for Gallipoli. Particularly as it gives a view of the war not usually covered (I.e. not the trenches on the Western Front(. There's also a mini-series called Anzacs, which I think is fairly suitable. Tricky enough to get hold of though.

There is also Joyeaux Noel (I think that's the name) about the Christmas Truce. A n excellent film. My Boy Jack is very good too & I don't remember it being too gory.

I think though that there is going to be a considerable amount of trench warfare/violence in any WW1 film, it just goes with the subject matter.

Dr Zhivago was mainly Russian revolution.

Joyeux Noel is very very good, but perhaps a bit too grim in the trench warfare scenes.

It's also shot in French, German and English, which may be off-putting to a child?

And how explicit were the sex scenes featuring the only woman in the film?

"Oh What a lovely war" gives some of the concepts in a way. There is some original footage, if I remember right. You probably need to be prepared to watch it with them and help them understand that the aim was to ironically mock the war, not glorify it.

The poppy scene at the end chokes me up every time.

thank you very much everyone for the suggestions. I will have to have a look at some of these films and see how they would work. Some I have seen but no longer remember that well and others I have never seen. Great suggestions, it is a big help. I really couldn't think of anything which was not largely about battle scenes. I am looking more for something about the period with the war of course in the backdrop, particularly something that showed the life of children, not really scenes of battle. What I can do is screen a bit and maybe we can just watch certain scenes.