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They Shall Not Grow Old

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Clitheroekid
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They Shall Not Grow Old

#172666

Postby Clitheroekid » October 9th, 2018, 11:45 pm

This looks fantastic – Peter Jackson has done an amazing job of restoring footage from the First World War, so that it looks like it was filmed a few weeks ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHYRfukHToc

One night only, October 16, a date for your diary!

AJC5001
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#172677

Postby AJC5001 » October 10th, 2018, 12:33 am

Clitheroekid wrote:This looks fantastic – Peter Jackson has done an amazing job of restoring footage from the First World War, so that it looks like it was filmed a few weeks ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHYRfukHToc

One night only, October 16, a date for your diary!


Given the effort, time, skill and probably cost concerned in doing this, why on earth is it being shown on 'one night only' :?

Adrian

Clitheroekid
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#172680

Postby Clitheroekid » October 10th, 2018, 12:58 am

AJC5001 wrote:Given the effort, time, skill and probably cost concerned in doing this, why on earth is it being shown on 'one night only' :?

Good question, I was wondering the same. I suppose it may be because they think there would only be a very limited audience, but I think it would have quite a wide appeal.

However, it will also be broadcast on BBC1 on 11 November, Armistice day.

Lootman
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#172682

Postby Lootman » October 10th, 2018, 1:13 am

AJC5001 wrote:
Clitheroekid wrote:This looks fantastic – Peter Jackson has done an amazing job of restoring footage from the First World War, so that it looks like it was filmed a few weeks ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHYRfukHToc

One night only, October 16, a date for your diary!

Given the effort, time, skill and probably cost concerned in doing this, why on earth is it being shown on 'one night only' :?

They say that now but are hardly going to discard it afterwards. If it does well they will sell it overseas and/or make it available online or on DVD.

Probably just a gimmick to persuade you to watch it now by claiming the material will somehow self-destruct at midnight. Look out for it on Tesco's shelves in time for Christmas :lol:

stewamax
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#172869

Postby stewamax » October 10th, 2018, 7:24 pm

"They shall not grow old"
OK - but Laurence Binyon(in For the Fallen) might care to differ. His words - and the ones intoned at Remembrance ceremonies are:

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them"

As an aside, I live in hope that C of E clergy will, for services on this day, permit the hymn O Valiant Hearts to be sung; it has long been discouraged for specious theological reasons (vide verse 5's 'Look down to bless our lesser Calvaries') as well as being too militaristic. The tune itself (The Supreme Sacrifice by Charles Harris) has been played before every national Remembrance for the last eighty years or so (and is an even better fit for the words of Abide with Me than the traditional tune Eventide!).

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#172895

Postby Howyoudoin » October 10th, 2018, 9:42 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:This looks fantastic – Peter Jackson has done an amazing job of restoring footage from the First World War, so that it looks like it was filmed a few weeks ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHYRfukHToc

One night only, October 16, a date for your diary!



This looks amazing, thanks for making me aware.

Suspect it will be a short lived novelty, just as it was when I replaced some of my complete Laurel & Hardy collection with the 'colorized' versions 20 years ago but even so, it's good for one watch!

HYD

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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#174831

Postby Clitheroekid » October 19th, 2018, 1:31 am

Just to say that we went to watch this at our local cinema on Tuesday night and it was brilliant - much better than I'd expected. The transformation from flickering black and white to what looked like contemporary film was stunning, but the actual content of the film was fascinating as well, and often very moving.

As the original footage obviously had no soundtrack the sound was provided by recordings of soldiers who'd fought in the war talking about their experiences. These were linked to the film being shown at the time, so a section of the film about tanks would be accompanied by reminiscences of the men who had served in them.

Another very clever and effective technique was that occasionally they would lip sync dialogue with the film, so that it would appear as though one of the men shown on film was speaking.

There were lots of fascinating snippets that would never have occurred to me. For example, when a bullet hit a tank it dislodged a flake of metal from the inside, which one soldier likened to being surrounded by flying razor blades.

Some of the footage was hard to watch. Seeing a flickering Charlie Chaplin style film of wounded men is very different from seeing those men as if on a news bulletin. Although we think we know how awful warfare on the Western Front was nothing prepares you for some of the images and the descriptions. If a man tripped and fell off one of the duckboards he would quickly drown in the mud and sludge. There was footage of badly wounded men laid out on stretchers with magpies hopping over them, waiting for them to die, and rats were everywhere, fattened on the corpses of the men and horses that lay all around.

Yet rather prosaically, the one thing we all immediately commented on after leaving the cinema was not the horror of what we'd seen but the horrendous dentistry of the young soldiers! This was in the days when it was not uncommon for a person on reaching adulthood to have all their teeth removed, and looking at these young men one could see why. A very good advert for NHS dental care!

What was also quite counter-intuitive was how many of the soldiers had really enjoyed the war. This seemed incredible to us at the time, but of course we're looking back on it from the comfort and ease of middle class life in the 21st century. We forget that many of these young lads were working in dreadful conditions in heavy industry or mines or textile mills, so that a life in the Army probably did represent a great improvement. And of course there were probably many soldiers who saw little or no serious fighting anyway.

It came as quite a shock to hear the plight of those who returned to civilian life when the war had ended. I hadn't realised that jobs were advertised with the caveat "No ex-servicemen need apply", which struck me as dreadful. Many of the men said that they felt completely alienated from civilian life, as civilians had no comprehension of what they'd been through and even less desire to learn about it.

And at the end of the film (which was being screened live from the London Film Festival) there was a very interesting Q & A with Peter Jackson, which included some fascinating information about the techniques used to transform the film quality.

So a thoroughly excellent film, and I commend it to the House! :D

stewamax
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#180707

Postby stewamax » November 15th, 2018, 9:57 pm

Having watched it on iPlayer (and it is available until Sunday night 18th), I was expecting some of the digital wizardry used in Lord of the Rings.
I was hugely impressed however by the sensitive, affectionate and unsentimental treatment given by Peter Jackson. Using throughout the voices of real combatants – all now dead – as voiceovers was a stroke of genius. Many of the voices and scenes were recognisable from the Beeb’s monumental series The Great War that used the IWM’s film archive, but the effect of seeing the core part of the film in high-quality non-jerky colour was stunning.

It wasn't an historical account of the war but a social history seen through the eyes of the soldiers. Anyone who appreciates the military works of authors such as Richard Holmes will take to it like a duck to water.

It will be out on a Warner Bros DVD ‘shortly’ and no doubt on the usual streaming sources also.

Do watch it!

todthedog
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#180749

Postby todthedog » November 16th, 2018, 6:23 am

Brilliant, evocative film.
Things that immediately struck me the teeth as mentioned above.
The lack of bitterness in the old soldiers.
Well worth a watch

Redmires
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#180776

Postby Redmires » November 16th, 2018, 10:01 am

Agreed. A brilliant piece of work and just seeing blood/wounds in colour makes it both very vivid, real and horrific. It's easy to watch old war footage and somehow see it as not relevant because it's old, grainy, B&W and all so long ago. It was also something to see footage that you've seen many times over in B&W brought to life. I have seen "colourised" footage before but this was at a different level altogether.

Itsallaguess
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Re: They Shall Not Grow Old

#181189

Postby Itsallaguess » November 18th, 2018, 6:46 am

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet - but They Shall Not Grow Old is available via BBC IPlayer until the end of Sunday 18th November -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0brzkzx

Cheers,

Itsallaguess


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