Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old BBC2

Quite an outstanding piece of filmmaking that.

The excitement and enthusiasm of the boys right up to going to the front and then the reality. You really felt it. But the way it was done really brought it to life. It had always been so 'historic' to me.
 


I know the colour was brilliant but I thought the thing that really helped bring it to life was the filling in of the frames so that you could see the movement of people in real time, rather than like a Charlie Chaplin film.

Christ knows how long it took them to remaster all that.
In the Interview Jackson said it was just a time thing ,eventually they stopped but more time meant even more detail etc
 
A kind 'making of' is on iplayer

BBC iPlayer - What Do Artists Do All Day? - 27. Peter Jackson

To mark the centenary of WWI, Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has produced an acclaimed documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. Using the latest cutting edge production techniques to restore and colourise original footage from the Imperial War Museum, alongside interviews with servicemen, the film brings to life the soldiers' experiences in unprecedented detail. To accompany the film's BBC broadcast, this special episode of What Do Artists Do All Day follows Jackson at work on the documentary, discussing his motivations for making the film and revealing his own deep personal connection to the war, through his British grandfather who fought at the Somme
 
I wish we'd covered it in history at school, probably considered too recent !

staggering to see what they had to contend with in such a modern manner - I was struck by how friendly they were with the Germans, they all knew it was all about fuck all
 
I've just watched it there now, and was going to post something, but you've took the words out of my mouth..

And to treat them so terribly afterwards. Awful.
Most were treat the same way before the war, lots joined up because it meant three square meals a day, something they rarely got in civilian life.
 
I’ve always wondered how we could be led into another devestating conflict just 20 short years later. Based on the comments at the end it seemed the public didn’t have an understanding of the horrors of the first war and may come some way to explain.

Must have been heartbreaking for the lads who fought in the first to see us have to do it again, their sons in many cases.
To be fair everyone was desperate to avoid another war, which allowed Hitler to get away with all sorts, if he'd been checked early on the Second World War may have been avoided.

Britain also disarmed in the hope other countries would follow, and our military tactics changed in order to minimise any casualties (and hence were often fairly ineffective).
 
I wonder how many times the average Tommy went over the top? I am assuming he served the whole four years and survived.

Not sure how anyone could cope with even one.
I couldn't believe they were walking. Not running, ducking, taking cover etc.

Most were treat the same way before the war, lots joined up because it meant three square meals a day, something they rarely got in civilian life.
I said something similar to the missus last night. Case of "how can it be worse than what we have now". They were wrong, but I guess it made sense at the time.
 
A kind 'making of' is on iplayer

BBC iPlayer - What Do Artists Do All Day? - 27. Peter Jackson

To mark the centenary of WWI, Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has produced an acclaimed documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. Using the latest cutting edge production techniques to restore and colourise original footage from the Imperial War Museum, alongside interviews with servicemen, the film brings to life the soldiers' experiences in unprecedented detail. To accompany the film's BBC broadcast, this special episode of What Do Artists Do All Day follows Jackson at work on the documentary, discussing his motivations for making the film and revealing his own deep personal connection to the war, through his British grandfather who fought at the Somme

Glad you've posted that. I knew a making of was on then forgot all about it. Tried to find it on Iplayer but had no idea what it was called.
 
I couldn't believe they were walking. Not running, ducking, taking cover etc.


I said something similar to the missus last night. Case of "how can it be worse than what we have now". They were wrong, but I guess it made sense at the time.
Aye, I think what a lot of people overlook too, was in 1918 they had the Spanish flu to contend with and that resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million, so you go through 4 years of carnage, to then have to navigate this pandemic, it' doesn't bare thinking about.
 
Watched this last night and couldn't stop thinking about it.

Two bits got to me.

The bloke talking about having to shoot a badly wounded soldier, and how it affected him. Old boys choking up always make me go.

And the lad shaking, walking alongside the wounded. Just the look in his eyes. Bloody hell.

What a pointless, inhuman, waste of a generation.
 
The part that stuck out to me, for a different reason, was at 8.57 in the film, where someone, I presume he'd been an officer, said,
"When they came to us, they were weedy, sallow, skinny frightened children, the refuse of out industrial system" sort of sums up what they thought of these lads, cannon fodder.
 
The bloke talking about having to shoot a badly wounded soldier, and how it affected him. Old boys choking up always make me go..
That was one bit that got me too. How he knew it was the best thing he could do, but it was still horrible.

And unless I misheard, some young lad getting stuck in the mud, and sinking to his death - and nobody could do anything about it.
 
It brings it home when you realize every one on that film are long gone.

The part that stuck out to me, for a different reason, was at 8.57 in the film, where someone, I presume he'd been an officer, said,
"When they came to us, they were weedy, sallow, skinny frightened children, the refuse of out industrial system" sort of sums up what they thought of these lads, cannon fodder.
Spot on there,Butcher Haig had no conscience .
 
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