10 Great World War 1 Films You've Probably Never Seen

Arguably one of the most underrated or at least underseen World War I movies ever made, See You Up There earned rave reviews upon release in 2017 and it’s not difficult to see why with filmmaker Albert Dupontel delivering a film of searing originality and bold inventiveness.

Set in the final days of the conflict and over the two years that followed, the film opens with a blistering wartime action scene to rival Steven Spielberg’s visceral Omagh beach landing from the start of Saving Private Ryan. Sent off on one final futile charge on the enemy lines against a harrowing backdrop of bombs, blood, guts and artillery fire, a pair of French soldiers find their lives intrinsically linked after one saves the other from certain death only to suffer a life-altering disfigurement in the process.

Bound together by fate and assumed dead by their loved ones, the pair decide to take revenge on a society they believe has more sympathy of its war dead than the wounded that return. They hit upon a scam to sell monuments to invented war heroes across every city and village and France, only to pocket the commission without delivering a single statue or plinth.

Based on Pierre Lemaitre’s novel The Great Swindle, See You Up There delivers a stunningly realistic portrait of the war’s final days as part of a film that pulls no punches, blending dark themes with jet black humour and moments of wondrous cinematic artistry.