Filmmaker Brian Henry Martin’s BBC-aired documentary offers the first-ever public viewing of hitherto unknown photographs from the Western Front during the height of World War I. The photos were taken by Lance Corporal George Hackney, a Belfast soldier and amateur shutterbug who brought his portable camera into military service. Although Royal Army rules forbade soldiers from taking unofficial photographs in the trenches, Hackney managed to create hundreds of pictures of his comrades. Hackney’s photographs were only known to his family until he donated his collection to the Ulster Museum shortly before his death in 1977, but the contents were archived and never shown until Martin first learned about them in 2014. The archival photos reveal that Hackney’s camerawork under difficult circumstances was both polished and sophisticated, capturing the emotions of British soldiers in relaxed candid moments before battles and later in haunted expressions following bloody conflicts. Hackney’s illegal actions were never detected by his superiors, but after the war he put away his camera and rarely talked about his military service. Actor Ian McElhinney appears in dramatic re-creations of Hackney late in life. Offering a fascinating glimpse of the Great War from a different angle, this will certainly appeal to history buffs. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)
The Man Who Shot the Great War
(2016) 59 min. DVD: $24.99 ($199.99 w/PPR). Dreamscape Media. Closed captioned. Volume 34, Issue 5
The Man Who Shot the Great War
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