They Shall Not Grow Old

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Snailrail
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They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by Snailrail » Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:15 am

Last night we visited the local Odeon to see the world premier of this film, live from the British Film Institute in London and being simultaneously shown on cinemas all over the country. I only knew about it after seeing an item on the TV news. Despite the high ticket price it is the first time in years I have seen a cinema virtually full.

For those who weren't aware of it, it is a film made by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum to coincide with this special Armistice Day. From hundreds of hours of archive film of the First World War, using the latest technology, he has restored many sequences, cleaning the film, slowing it down to a realistic speed and colourising it. The result is truly breathtaking.

I have long been interested in WW1 and have visited the battlefields of the Somme, Verdun and other places several times. I thought I had a vague idea of just how terrible trench warfare was. I now realise I did not. This film brings home the horrors more vividly than anything you've ever seen. To see it in jerky black and white is one thing. To see it in full colour and looking like it was filmed yesterday is something else.

Above all though the film helps to turn these black and white figures into real people. It also shows the humour which is often the only coping process for people in terrible circumstances. And it shows the humanity in the midst of it all. One remarkable sequence shows a dressing station with British and German soldiers being treated alongside each other and German POWs helping the British doctors and carrying wounded. At that point there was no enemy, no animosity, they were all just soldiers trying to get through it.

On a lighter note, it is also not entirely off topic as there are some very good sequences featuring the trench railways. Several steam and petrol locos are shown and trains taking troops and supplies up to the communication trenches.

See it if you can for whatever reason. It is not easy to watch at times but is a phenomenal piece of work.
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by Busted Bricks » Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:05 pm

I saw a clip on Youtube about it. I doubt it will reach cinemas in Denmark but I hope it will be released on DVD or Netflix in the future.

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by Big Jim » Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:54 pm

I am looking forward to seeing this. I am not a fan of multiplex cinemas, I prefer our localish flea-pit but I may make an exception.
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by tom_tom_go » Sat Oct 20, 2018 7:26 am

BBC News - Will Gompertz on Peter Jackson's WWI film They Shall Not Grow Old ★★★★☆
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45910189

Looks like we will be able to watch it at home soon.

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by FWLR » Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:16 am

I saw this guy on the TV last week about with Peter Jackson making this film, it was fascinating to hear what they had to do to make it. He got some people who could lip read, so he could add them speaking in real time. Although they couldn’t put any accents to them, I did hear a few words spoken and I was amazed at what they achieved.

We will be going to see it when it comes our local cinema.

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by Big Jim » Sun Nov 11, 2018 4:11 pm

BBC2 tonight at 2130hrs.

I have taken two Rememberance services this morning and I am off in a few minutes to take number three.

I think an evening in front of the tellybox with a few bottles of brown ale and a bag or two of marmite crisps has been well earned.
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by FWLR » Mon Nov 12, 2018 9:58 am

You surely do work hard Jim. :salute:

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:15 pm

It's available on BBC iPlayer and is humbling to watch.

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by ge_rik » Mon Nov 12, 2018 3:33 pm

Couple of good clips of the light railway system with a Baldwin and a diesel loco (not sure what flavour).

Very poignant with the voices of the Tommies as the sole commentary. The clearly terrified face of the young lad in the group waiting to go over the top is something which will live with me. Mentioned it to my mum and she says her dad (who was in the Somme) told her that those who were most frightened seemed to be the ones who got hit first.

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:27 pm

I think the locos were petrol but without Googling and pretending I am knowledgeable then I would not know what exact make and model they were.

The documentary certainly made a lasting impression on me...

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by Big Jim » Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:29 pm

A Dick-Kerr was featured in quite a long shot.

I found it fascinating, 90 mins has never passed so quickly. I know the B/W film from the time is real, but seeing it coloured and enhanced made it seem much more real than ever before, the voices were spot on. Not to overstated but just enough to add to the atmosphere. The shots of the wounded with the German Prisoners was very poignant.
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:40 pm

I found it very difficult to watch if I am honest.

I really don't think as a race of people we have understood how to live together.

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by FWLR » Tue Nov 13, 2018 8:19 am

tom_tom_go wrote: Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:40 pm I found it very difficult to watch if I am honest.

I really don't think as a race of people we have understood how to live together.
It all depends on how you determine race Tom. Are we one race or many. It is often banded about all the different races relations on something or another. But aren’t we the human race. Meaning one race, not many. So I agree with you Tom, why can’t we all live together and end all this suffering.

We should be thanking our gods that we can live on such a beautiful planet has ours.

Wait until the aliens come…………….. :blob8: :blob8: :blob8:

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

Post by Paul_A_C » Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:38 am

I watched the film on BBC iPlayer. It is horrific and distressing in places, but yet poignant. My paternal grandfather, George Cambridge served with the Royal Field Artillery and was also part of the army of occupation of the Rhine in 1919. He would never talk about it. The only opinion I can attribute to him was “They don’t want to know you when you come back”. Granddad was 84 when he died in 1982, so he had a good long life, that could have been tragically cut short.

He lost two brothers, Arthur who was in the 7th Btn, London Regiment and died aged 20. He is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, 10km west of Ypres. I don’t think he fought in the Ypres salient, but probably at the Somme. There were casualty clearing stations near Lijssenthoek. I need to undertake more research. William was serving on the troop ship SS Aragon, when it was torpedoed off Alexandria, Eqypt. He was 17.

For our family, World War 1 is very real, even though the armistice was 100 years ago. My father was named Arthur George William, after his father and uncles. Arthur is my middle name and my grandson has a middle name Arthur, primarily after his great-grandfather, but the link is there all the way up through the generations to his great great great grandfather who was also an Arthur and lost two sons.

In memory of Arthur and William Albert Cambridge; They shall not grow old.

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