Battle of the Somme is a pioneering battlefield documentary that was seen by huge audiences in the UK when it was released in August 1916, barely a month after the events it depicted. Cinema-goers hailed it as an opportunity to see the reality of the Western Front for the first time, and to share the experiences of the soldiers who were fighting there. The film inaugurated a debate about the on-screen depiction of combat that continues to this day, and is the origin of some of the most widely used and iconic moving images of the First World War. 

This remarkable film, digitally restored by the Imperial War Museum’s Film and Video Archive and Dragon Digital Intermediate is a startling improvement on previously released video versions. It also has the following special features:

• An official 36-page booklet with contributions from the Imperial War Museum archive team
• A full orchestral score by Laura Rossi, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum in 2005 and performed for the recording – as it was for the première performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 22 October 2006 – by The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Nic Raine.
• A recreation of the medley of light classics, folk tunes, popular songs and military music recommended as an accompaniment for the film in 1916 by cinema musician J. Morton Hutcheson in The Bioscope, a contemporary trade journal. The medley, the subject of several years of research by Dr Toby Haggith of the Imperial War Museum and Stephen Horne, is performed for the DVD by a small ensemble led by the latter.
• Interviews with the composer Laura Rossi and historians
• Missing footage. 

No. of Disc: 1
Total Running Time: 74 minutes (approx.)
Screen Ratio: 1.33:1/Colour
Language: English