Discussion Questions

March 22, 2016

1. What does the movie say about the element of class in war?    What are specific examples from the movie in which the concept of class is evident? (ie scenes, language, etc.)  How does the movie's presentation of class compare to anything else we have looked at  to this point? In particular, how would the character of Billy Prior fit with what we have learned about class and war?
2. What exactly is the nature of Sassoon's protest?  How is his protest tied specifically to the his poetry (ie very specific examples) you have read?
3. Based on what you have read by Sassoon (ie his poems, other writings) and by Rivers, how would you assess the historical portrayal by the movie?
4. The  movie contains a number of quite disturbing images.  Which scene did you find to be the most powerful and have the greatest impact upon you?  
5. One of the questions we dealt with in various ways is the differences between visual and written sources.  More specifically, did you find the images of the movie (Hollywood) more powerful than the images created by the readings (real lives) throughout this course?  Did you react differently to the visual portrayal of some events in the movie than to the physical and emotional agonies experienced by real individuals in our readings? Why or why not?
6. Is it possible as historians to be able 'to put ourselves' in the past and truly empathize with and/or understand our subjects?
7. According to Winter, "shell shock was a vehicle at one and the same time of consolation and legitimization".  What does Winter mean by this?
8. According to Watson, soldiers on the Western Front were able to cope with their situation through "...perceptual filters and psychological strategies...."  What precisely were those filters and strategies?  How effective were they?