Modern Media/YouTube Essay Example

YouTube essay example:

1. Choose your theme: The Impact of WWI on Human Psychology
2. Choose and Watch Three Films:
a. All Quiet on the Western Front
b. A Very Long Engagement
c. The Razor’s Edge
3. As you watch each, take notes, looking for common themes.
4. Think about an opening argument or simply a way to introduce these three films. This is really synthesis at this point. What is the historical significance of the three films?
5. Think about a natural ordering to the presentation of the three films. Each film will now have its own paragraph.
6. Write a single paragraph about each film. Within the paragraph, place links to the film clips or to other videos that represent some theme from the film.
7. Conclude this brilliant work with one paragraph (and some historical insight).
8. Email me a copy of the historical review before class next week.


With 8.6 million combatants killed, 6.5 million civilians killed, and 37 million casualties overall, the human toll of World War One was astounding. Just one example reveals the atrocity of the so called Great War. At the Battle of the Somme, from July 1, 1916 to November 16, 1916, tens of thousands of Brits went “over the top,” hurling themselves out of the safety of their trenches and into the nearly certain doom of “no man’s land.” 20,000 would die on the first day. By the end of this battle, 420,000 British soldiers, 200,000 French soldiers, and 450,000 German soldiers would be killed or wounded. Did this battle lead to a great victory for either side? Certainly not. The allies officially “won,” but the twelve kilometers of territory they gained would lead to no great strategic watershed. Instead, with new trenches dug, mines planted, and barbed wire strung, the stalemate of trench warfare quickly returned. Are these numbers, however, evidence enough of the evil nature of this war, or do they, in fact, obfuscate the impact of war? By examining three movies that treat the psychological importance of World War One, the historian has easier access to the actual emotional content of war. “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “A Very Long Engagement,” and “The Razor’s Edge” reveal less about politicians, armor, or strategy and more about the meaninglessness of this particular war; it was the futility of WWI that exacerbated the suffering of the individual soldier.
“A Very Long Engagement,” a film made in 2004 by Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is as much a touching love story as it is a tale of the brutality of war. The story involves seven men sentenced to death, each of having tried to mutilate himself as a way of getting sent home from the war. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I9Pckt4GRY pause at 2:36) The fact that these men were willing to lose finger or a whole hand to avoid combat is evidence of the psychological stress caused by this war. In fact, the term “shell shock” originated in World War One, applied to otherwise mentally stable soldiers who shook violently, spoke uncontrollably, suffered from nightmares, or had other manifestations resulting from wartime psychological trauma. According to a 1917 study entitled “The Repression of War Experience” by W. H. Rivers “a young officer who was sent home from France on account of a wound received just as he was extricating himself from a mass of earth in which he had been buried. When he reached hospital in England he was nervous and suffered from disturbed sleep and loss of appetite. When his wound had healed he was sent home on leave where his nervous symptoms became more pronounced, so that at his next board his leave was extended. He was for a time an out-patient at a London hospital and was then sent to a convalescent home in the country. Here he continued to sleep badly, with disturbing dreams of warfare, and became very anxious about himself and his prospects of recovery.” This description could clearly apply to the “Cornflower” in “A Very Long Engagement.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I9Pckt4GRY start at 7:58)