The Battle of The Somme (film) - Preservation, Restoration and Rereleases

Preservation, Restoration and Rereleases

In 1920 the film's original nitrate negative was passed to the Imperial War Museum for preservation. A nitrate protection archive master was made in 1921, and an acetate safety master in 1931. The nitrate masters were destroyed in the 1970s after the onset of irreversible nitrate decomposition.

The film was made available on VHS in 1987, becoming the first title from the museum's film archive to be released on video.

In 2005 The Battle of the Somme was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register for the preservation of global documentary heritage. The film was described by UNESCO as a 'compelling documentary record of one of the key battles of the First World War the first feature-length documentary film record of combat produced anywhere in the world' and as having 'played a major part in establishing the methodology of documentary and propaganda film'.

On 22 October 2006, following a restoration project by the Imperial War Museum and Dragon Digital Intermediate, a digitally restored version of The Battle of the Somme was screened at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The film was accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Nic Raine, performing an original orchestral score by composer Laura Rossi. The restoration was later nominated for an Archive Restoration or Preservation Project award by FOCAL, the Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries. In November 2008 the restored film was released on DVD to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice in 1918. As soundtracks to the film, the DVD included Laura Rossi's score, an accompanying 1916 musical medley, and a commentary by Roger Smither, film archivist at the Imperial War Museum. The DVD included interviews with Smither and Rossi, and with Toby Haggith (film archivist) and Stephen Horne (silent film musician) on the reconstruction of the contemporary medley. Also included were film fragments and missing scenes.