“Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre. What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible! Men are mad!”
– French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire
Wow. What an incredible experience.I can’t imagine how painstakingly difficult it must have been to restore and colourize this 100 year old footage. We stayed after the film for the 30 min mini-doc by Peter Jackson and got a little taste. So much work but absolutely worth the effort and then some. I guarantee that every single one of the excited and bewildered soldiers looking at a movie camera for prob the first time would certainly appreciate it.
“We’re in the pictures”
“Hi Mum”
That was the thing that struck me the most about this film, how the colourization made it all so real and easy to put yourself there. It gave every single soldier a personalized story and energy bc you could see each individual face and personality.
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The trenches looked like pure, absolute hell. The conditions they endured and the after effects were atrocious. And you learned that they were treated like outcasts rather than heroes when they returned. The people at home were so oblivious to the War going on that people actually asked these soldiers what they had been doing the last few years. There are no words.
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So cool seeing the reactions to being filmed, reading everyone’s face. All the excited waving. Some bursting with excitement, giddy, and a good number just had a ‘wtf’ look haha but you know that they all would be so blown away and happy to know that 100 years later people were watching it and celebrating them.
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Was happy to see the theatre about 75% full, An unbelievable experience I’m so grateful we got the opportunity to have. I encourage everyone to check this film out, in theatre if you can but go out of your way to track it down, the men in the film that fought for the greater good would certainly appreciate it.
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I remember after LOTR finished, I was wondering what Peter Jackson’s next project would be and read that he was interested in doing a WW1 film. I wonder if this is that project, bc while I would certainly embrace a feature film about a WW1 story by Peter Jackson I would also be more than satisfied with ‘They Shall Not Grow Old.’ By bringing the real footage to life, it tells a story that no movie ever could. It gives new life to men and boys that had theirs cut far too short.
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What a great thing Peter Jackson and his team have done with this film. They have brought great honour and appreciation to what these men and women went through, doesn’t get much better than that.