They Shall Not Grow Old

[Doug Palmer]

Have just seen this at my local cinema, followed by a live discussion between Mark Kermode and Peter Jackson. It was in 2D but apparently the London version was in 3D. Did anyone see it tonight ? How did it look ?

Certainly a big milestone in the restoration of old archive footage.

https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi1891416601?ref_=ttvi_vi_imdb_1

 

Some of the detail we saw was amazing, just like we are accustomed to see in modern war films. For me though the best part was how they dubbed the sound of men's voices. Peter Jackson said they had expert lip-readers who could determine what was being said, then the actors took over. And some dialogue was quite funny. Humour he said was all they had before going over the top into no-man's land. I thought afterwards, even the cameramen probably didn't hear what was being said, over the noise of their cameras.

 

There was no footage available of actual combat between soldiers for obvious reasons, so Jackson used drawings from magazines of the period. Not too successful I thought, maybe paintings would have worked better. However, a small criticism and for the most part a stunning documentary. And a moving scene of the British and German soldiers wearing eachother's helmets showed the futility of it all.

[Jon O'Brien]

I love the WWI story, I read somewhere, of how the Germans and British came up out of the trenches one Christmas morning, smoked cigarettes, swapped some food, sung songs together, and ended up kicking a football around I think. Then a handshake and back into the trenches. Crazy and sad but also hopeful in a way. Haven't seen the above film yet but will.

[Timothy Fransky]

I'm very much looking forward to this film. I'm fascinated by the Great War. We still feel the effects of that conflict.

[Dom Jaeger]

I love the WWI story, I read somewhere, of how the Germans and British came up out of the trenches one Christmas morning, smoked cigarettes, swapped some food, sung songs together, and ended up kicking a football around I think. Then a handshake and back into the trenches. Crazy and sad but also hopeful in a way. Haven't seen the above film yet but will.

 

That story was made into the wonderful 2005 film Joyeux Noel.

[Timothy Fransky]

 

That story was made into the wonderful 2005 film Joyeux Noel.

 

And it only happened in 1914, I believe, at least on that level. There are stories of it happening later on in the war in smaller pockets of the Western front. Things definitely changed after Spring 1915, when poison gas was first deployed. The gloves came off after that.

 

That said, there were many individuals who still considered the morality of the whole thing, even into the mud of Passchendaele. There are photos that show both sides assisting with the wounded, regardless of uniform or rank. If you could keep a man alive, or even ease his suffering, some felt it was their Christian duty to do so.

 

Others still took the opposite approach. Many companies took no prisoners. I'm ashamed to say my own nation was notorious for this. And not just in the heat of the heavy fighting. A boy slumped over a gun carriage would raise an arm and be rewarded with a round of 303 through his skull. "You never know if he was going to start shooting again," was the justification.

 

Indeed, your own countrymen used their own rotting dead to build parapets against the Turkish fire at Gallipoli. They had nothing else to protect themselves

 

So, we must be very careful not to romanticize that conflict. There's plenty of horror and honour to go around, but it's all disconnected. There's no one statement or battle that fully encapsulates it. It's a rabbit warren of dead ends and dud shells.

[Doug Palmer]

The movie has many recorded accounts of soldiers' experiences as a narration. And as Timothy says, there are varying views of the enemy. It's difficult for us to imagine the horror and despair of seeing one's pals blown apart.

The movie only really covered the trench warfare in France. WW1 was obviously much more extensive. Maybe Peter Jackson or someone else can use the same techniques of film restoration on other subjects too.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Doug Palmer