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Croney

(4,657 posts)
Fri Feb 8, 2019, 10:25 PM Feb 2019

Just saw "They Shall Never Grow Old."

Last edited Sat Feb 9, 2019, 01:33 AM - Edit history (1)

This is an amazing documentary using ONLY 100-year-old film footage from World War I including front-line footage narrated by servicemen who were actually there.

Sounds impossible, but director Peter Jackson explains how they restored the film, corrected speed and quality, and colorized all the war scenes and even synced the voiceovers with the silent film. The narrators recorded their stories in the 1970's.

One hundred years! The people look, talk, and act like they're in a war movie made today, but the death and horror shown are real.

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volstork

(5,399 posts)
3. Agreed!
Fri Feb 8, 2019, 10:44 PM
Feb 2019

I saw it before the holidays, and found it absolutely amazing. Glad to hear that it is being shown more widely.

Doodley

(9,078 posts)
7. I am going to see this with my wife. I can't help but cry just thinking about it.
Fri Feb 8, 2019, 11:18 PM
Feb 2019

It is harrowing to think what so many have been through, and in many cases are still going through now. We should never forget.

BigmanPigman

(51,584 posts)
9. One of the main problems of WWI was the new technology
Fri Feb 8, 2019, 11:46 PM
Feb 2019

yet the generals fought using old strategies and techniques. There was poison gas, tanks, planes, machine guns etc. yet the troops fought like they were fighting enemies that were using the same tactics from 25 years earlier. Half of them could have survived if the leaders were more current with the modern tools of war.

Hekate

(90,633 posts)
12. Looked up the DVD on Amazon but it's Region B/2. Marvellous critique by technoguy, though. Link
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 12:35 AM
Feb 2019
https://www.amazon.com/They-Shall-Not-Grow-Blu-ray/dp/B07KJVS46G/ref=tmm_blu_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1549686029&sr=1-1

Scroll down the page to get to reviews: technoguy's is titled "inky dinky parlez-vous."

For all his detailed critique, he concludes the same as you: "See it. Do." I'm going to try.

Jarqui

(10,122 posts)
13. Devastating war for both sides of our family
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 12:53 AM
Feb 2019

I was still researching what happened to family members who served in 2016 with military historians
Pretty much my worst fears were confirmed of the horror they experienced

I looked at the trailer. Looks like amazing film quality and I've studied those old films.
But I do not think I could watch it.

NotHardly

(1,062 posts)
14. The death and horror of war are real.
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 01:23 AM
Feb 2019
My father was on Iwo Jima and let me assure you "The death and horror of war are real." I served 20 years in law enforcement and let me assure you, "The death and horror of violence are real". But this, this is the startling revelation of a 100 years old war "The death and horror of war are real"? So were the politics and social acts of violence that created and proceeded this death camp of war.

Seriously?
. A bit of a long view of history would serve you better.

Meaning not much disrespect but, seriously? The death and horror of war are real... sounds more like a fanboy statement than someone who has spent any time reading history and a whole lot less than serving any public service.

There is no honor in war. If there were, the countries who sent their young people to fight would take better care of the survivors, soldiers and family members who outlasted the devastation into which they were thrust or victims. If there were an honor, no military would deny the harm the living and surviving service personnel endured and as an agency of government honor those surviving with care, comfort, and support they earned. It would be the civilized thing to do ... except, we are not that civilized in this United States, not yet.

Maybe you should remember how the government treated the WWI soldier on his return ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
Army intervention........WWI Veterans denied pay resulting in ....

At 4:45 p.m., commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by six M1917 light tanks commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of civil service employees left work to line the street and watch. The Bonus Marchers, believing the troops were marching in their honor, cheered the troops until Patton ordered[citation needed] the cavalry to charge them, which prompted the spectators to yell, "Shame! Shame!"
Shacks that members of the Bonus Army erected on the Anacostia Flats burning after its confrontation with the army.

After the cavalry charged, the infantry, with fixed bayonets and tear gas (adamsite, an arsenical vomiting agent) entered the camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River to their largest camp, and Hoover ordered the assault stopped. MacArthur chose to ignore the president and ordered a new attack, claiming that the Bonus March was an attempt to overthrow the US government; 55 veterans were injured and 135 arrested.

During the military operation, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, later the 34th president of the United States, served as one of MacArthur's junior aides. Believing it wrong for the Army's highest-ranking officer to lead an action against fellow American war veterans, he strongly advised MacArthur against taking any public role: "I told that dumb son-of-a-bitch not to go down there," he said later. "I told him it was no place for the Chief of Staff."Despite his misgivings, Eisenhower later wrote the Army's official incident report that endorsed MacArthur's conduct.

COLGATE4

(14,732 posts)
15. My aunt's husband was a 2nd Lt. in WWI, was badly wounded
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 03:53 PM
Feb 2019

and was awarded France's Croix de Guerre. Looking at footage from that carnage I am in awe of what he and thousands of other Americans went through. It was truly the 'war to end all wars'. Too bad it didn't.

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