Discussion Questions
March 24, 2009

**Remember we are meeting in Building 355 room 203 this evening.**

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. Based on what you have read by (or of) Sassoon and by Rivers, how would you assess the historical portrayal by the movie? 
3. How does the movie compare to what Bogacz has written concerning shell shock?
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 an earlier class was 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. According to Bogacz, "...so basic were the questions posed by the shell shock crisis that they ultimately threatened a number of traditional moral values."    What was the 'crisis' to which Bogacz refers?  What were the 'traditional moral values' that were threatened, and why?