1918

US, 1985, 89 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Broderick, Hallie Foote, William Converse- Roberts.
Directed by Ken Harrison.

1918 is based on a play by Horton Foote. Foote was the author of such screenplays as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Trip to Bountiful, Tender Mercies. Another play, On Valentine's Day, filmed by the same director with the same cast, forms a companion-piece with 1918.

The story is of Foote's family and shows American attitudes in a Texas town at the end of World War One and with the onset of the influenza epidemic of that year. The film has a beautiful approach to detail, characters and interactions. It is a film of gentleness as well as a film with truth. The cast includes Foote's granddaughter, Hallie Foote. The only big name member of the cast is Matthew Broderick as Brother.

The film is often slow-moving, focuses on detail of interaction, characterisation - but gives a feel for the period.

1. The work of Horton Foote, plays, screenplays? This film as a memoir?

2. With On Valentine's Day as a memoir of a particular period? Texas life?

3. The film was made for American public television? Qualities of production?

4. Texas in 1918, the country town, the look, homes and shops, war memorials, the cinema? Costumes and decor? The musical score, contemporary songs?

5. The atmosphere of World War One, the U.S. intervention, the American soldiers, being called up, parades in the town? The newsreels at the cinema

6. American involvement in the war, the story of the trenches, the soldiers returning, the veterans and the parade, injuries, the blind soldier?

7. The portrait of the family, the attention to details of daily life, relationships? The generations? An atmosphere of good manners and gentility?

8. The influenza epidemic of that year, so widespread, affecting so many people in the town? Caring for the ill, the funeral director, the funerals? The effect on the people in the town, morale?

9. The portrait of Horace, seeing him at work in the shop, at home, his place in the town? His love for Elizabeth, for their child? His concern about Brother? His concern about the war, the impetus to join up? His parents and his in-laws? Being struck down by the 'flu, the long illness, in delirium? The effect on his health, gradually getting better, remaining weak? The dream about the baby's death and the news that it was true? His wife caring for him? Not so demonstrative, the silences? Her new pregnancy? His fears? The birth of the child and his joy? The bond with Elizabeth? Life returning to normal in 1919?

10. Elizabeth as an attractive character, her love for Horace? The baby? Her playing the piano, the songs? Brother and her lending him the money, the warning? Her care for her husband in his illness, the grief of the baby's death? Her support from the girl in the town who spoke so little? Her pregnancy, telling Horace? The details of life, her apprehensions? The girl and her fears for the death of the baby? The birth? The names of the child? Reuniting with her husband?

11. Brother, his place in the family, his irresponsibility, gambling? In need of money, fearful of his father? Getting the money from Elizabeth? His interest in the war and its heroism? Continually at the movies? Helping with the family? The decision to send him to sea? The farewell? His leaving the train? His parents' concern about him?

12. The older generation, their manner, care for their children? Respectability? Life in the town?

13. The cemetery sequences, the question of the graves and the identification of the graves?

14. Life in an American town at the period? War and peace? The effect of the war? Changes and the emergence of the town into the 20th century?