Peter Jackson: They Shall Not Grow Old

[The Gaffer]

I know that not everyone is a fan of PJ. However, he has produced what I think is his masterwork.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7905466/

Colourised and restored footage from WW1, with a narrative of first person diaries, it's an absolutely devastating timeline of the war from the perspective of the enlisted troops.

I won't say too much about it, just that if you get a chance, SEE IT. Have a hanky or two. Think also of Mordor and the formative experiences of JRRT.

Posted in memory of my grandfather, who somehow made it through the Somme and Passchendaele. Rest in peace. Never forget.

[Valandil]

Yes, I just saw this. Thanks for posting it here.

[Snowdog]

I watched this on Netflix today. It was quite well done.
In memory of my dad's uncle Fred who was a 'Doughboy' that went 'Over There' in 1918. He suffered a severe lung wound from a phosgene gas attack and wasn't expected to live. He lived to be 93 and passed away in 1990. He lived within a reach of an oxygen bottle all through his life. He could go short periods without it but would slowly suffocate without the pure oxygen being piped into the ten or so percent of functional lung he had.

[Alcuin]

Thanks for the heads-up, Snowdog. I’ll try to see it, too. Your Uncle Fred was 20 or 21 years old when he was gassed, eh? That must have been a terrible blow to a young man, but at least he survived and lived to a ripe old age.

In the Foreword to Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien writes,

An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience… One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression… By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.

I knew a number of World War I veterans quite well, and discussed the horrors of the war and their experiences with them. All of them still had their gas masks; my children played with their mother’s grandfather’s gas mask, which probably wasn’t a good idea!

[kralizec]

Fantastic film!