Just saw Peter Jackson’s new Great War, aka WWI doc ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’
**warning**
long post about war to follow
Jackson didn’t write a word. The entire film is shot from restored ~100 year old footage and the narration is recordings of interviews with war vets in the 1960s, which places most of the men in their 60s/early 70s. The film opens in black and white, most of it is in color which makes the pics more relatable somehow. In one particularly chilling passage, pics of individual soldiers smiling are juxtaposed against what looks like those same soldiers after death—the narrators ostensibly discussing each soldier’s death as his head shot and death shots flash on the screen. The reality of trench warfare is beyond horrifying. Yet, men didn’t hold any hard feelings against the German soldiers & said when they interacted soldiers from both sides agreed war was useless.
It’s a riveting film which I highly recommend. The US has now spent the past ~18 years at war. I couldn’t help wondering how much different our country might behave if we consistently saw pics and footage of dead or dying soldiers, heard their screams as they lay wounded or dying.
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