"They Shall Not Grow Old"

Several nights ago my husband and I had the privilege of seeing the result of Peter Jackson’s epic restoration of hours upon hours of historic World War I film footage on loan from the Imperial War Museum in the UK. Mr. Jackson said he was tasked with putting a creative spin on the footage before rereleasing it to the public at large. That’s rather simplifying it a bit, but you can watch the documentary (which was shown following the movie) for yourself to learn the finer details.

Mr. Jackson said he first had to decide which angle to take in deciding what would be presented to the public amongst the hours and hours of footage he had to sort through. The decision was eventually made to present the experience of those on the front line with an effort being made to bring the men to life so we got to know them, and hence, mourn their loss as many lost their lives.

That being done, the film needed to be restored, and some of it colorized. Where there were gaps in film footage, stills from a World War I magazine called The War Illustrated were used.

Then there was the matter of adding sound to the silent footage – no small feat involving the use of lip readers to accurately match up dialogue to what was actually being said. Then there were creative sound effects, probably the most fun being the firing of the artillery which was done in conjunction with war reenactments. It is no wonder that this film took years and a vast crew to complete. When you watch the film you can see it was a labor of love and expertly done.

I certainly learned a lot after seeing the film – mostly about the seedier side of war. For instance, in lieu of latrines, men just dropped their trousers and hung their bums over a communal log, occasionally ending up in the dung pit if the log had the misfortune to split. This brought a few chuckles from the audience. I also didn’t realize that it wasn’t only prisoners who suffered from lice infestations. One of the narrators said it was very difficult to rid yourself of them, because once you put your clothes back on and your body warmed up, any stray eggs started hatching bringing about a new infestation.

Andrew sporting a fireman's helmet from WWI

My husband was lucky enough to visit some of the World War I battle sites in a school trip to Belgium/France (see photos). Though the trenches have filled in and grown over a bit, they’re still there as a permanent reminder of a terrible war that took the lives of millions of men, some as young as fifteen (as many lied about their ages and that fact was overlooked by the recruiters).

 one of the trenches

soldiers fired through the slits in the stone wall

inside one of the trenches

one of the better built trenches in France

I was most amused by Mr. Jackson’s choice to use the tune, “Mademoiselle from Armentières” while the credits ran. I recall doing a square dance to that when I was a child. We only knew it as “Inky, Dinky, Parlez-vous.” Apparently there are many variations with lyrics varying in their age appropriateness with some being less than PG.

If you have the chance to later stream this film or watch the dvd/Blu-ray version, I highly recommend it. It’s educational, entertaining, and a work of art to be appreciated by audiences.

P. S. It being nearly Christmas, we felt it was appropriate to stream the movie, "Joyeaux Noel" which is the true story of the Christmas Eve truce in December 1914. Although we had already seen the film many years ago, it was still as enjoyable as the first time we saw it, and certainly a good companion film. However, "Joyeaux Noel" paints a slightly less realistic portrait of war as the men's uniforms hardly have a stain and the men have all their teeth as well as their sense of humor.