World War I: The war that movies forgot

July 28, 2014 marks 100 years since the official start of the First World War.

One of the bloodiest conflicts in human history, the so-called “Great War” cost the lives of more than 16 million people and wounded or displaced tens of millions of others. Though its effects are still being felt to this day, World War I is a nearly forgotten conflict for many people. Part of the reason for that is how the war has been depicted in the movies, or rather, how it’s not been depicted.

Unlike the Second World War, which has provided the backdrop for countless classic and important films, movies about World War I are few and far between. Recent examples include 2004’s “A Very Long Engagement,” 2006’s “Flyboys,” 2008’s “Passchendaele” and 2011’s “War Horse,” but you’d be hard pressed to name any other notable WWI films made in the past decade.

There’s a reason for that. Unlike the World War II, which had the somewhat more noble goal of preventing the expansion of genocidal dictatorships, the First World War was largely a contest of strength between competing empires -- a war of attrition fought in the mud. Hardly the stuff of big screen romance and adventure. As such, movies based on World War I tend not to romanticize the conflict and instead focus on the brutality and stupidity of armed conflict on a global scale.

For great films about the “Great War,” you have to look back to a time when the conflict was still fresh in the public mind. Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 film drama “Paths of Glory” and David Lean’s epic 1962 “Lawrence of Arabia” are two such films - movies that are more a condemnation of war and colonialism than anything else.

"Paths of Glory" is not so much a war film as it is a courtroom drama. Kirk Douglas plays a French army officer tasked with defending his men after they are charged with cowardice for refusing to take part in a suicidal attack. It's a damning portrait of military bureaucracy and the hellish realities of war both on and off the battlefield.

“Lawrence of Arabia” follows the exploits of British army office T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), known for his role in helping coordinate the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire - a marriage of convenience that helped the British Empire immensely during the First World War and still echoes in the Middle East today.

Very few movies about the First World War were made in the 1960s or '70s, but in 1981 director Peter Weir made a mark with "Gallipoli," a film about a brutal (and ultimately futile) campaign fought by the Australian army in a forgotten corner of Turkey. The film was one of Mel Gibson's breakout roles.

It's been almost three years since mainstream movie audiences last saw the First World War depicted on screen in "War Horse" and there are no major movies about the war currently in production. As the conflict fades further into the past - and those who remember it pass on - we're likely to see fewer and fewer movies made about the war that was supposed to end all wars. Sure, they're not flashy or action packed like WWII movies, but as the films listed above make clear, remembering the true cost of war is something everyone needs to be reminded of now and again.