They Shall Not Grow Old

[SWC75]

I'm seeing this movie this afternoon. it has a very limited release: today and 12/27 at destiny, 4PM and 7PM. There are 2D and 3D versions. Even if you aren't a history buff, (I am), this should be fascinating as the way they did it made history come alive.

trailer:
An interview with Peter Jackson with more clips: Director Peter Jackson on his new WW1 documentary film

 

[Trueblue25]

Seeing it at 7, could not be more excited.

 

[upperdeck]

cool

in my town next week.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Hats off to Peter Jackson - this looks fantastic

 

[SWC75]

I saw it today. The remastered footage is about 50% of a movie that lasts only 99 minutes, (supposedly they remastered all 100 hours of available footage), but it’s still remarkable. As I said it looks like it’s modern actors making a film about WWI in 2018. They slowed down the film, used computers to create extra frames to fill in the gaps, cleaned it up, colorized it, added sound effects and some dialog voiced by people who came from where the regiment shown was raised and it just looks like a 2018 film even though the men in the pictures died long ago, perhaps in the war. The first 20 minutes are un-remastered footage of the army being recruited, (it’s about British troops, not Australian). Then , in stages they get into the remastered stuff. When they are discussing actual battles there is , unsurprisingly, limited actual footage and they got to drawings of soldiers in action. Aside from the display of technology, the best thing about it is the excerpts from 600 hours of interviews with British WWI veterans, describing their experiences and attitudes. Even though they are all British, there’s nothing negative about people of other countries or cultures, (at least in the 99 minutes they used). They express their simple patriotism at the beginning of the war and their feeling that what they went through was unjustified, (again Jackson may have picked out the statements that fit his narrative but it’s certainly understandable that they would feel the way they say they felt.)

All the interviews and old footage, (minus the new technology) reminded me of the famous BBC documentary “The Great War” done in 1964 that is on You-Tube and which I highly recommend:

The Great War: WWI (1-26 & Extras) BBC 1964 - YouTube