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They Shall Not Grow Old

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  • They Shall Not Grow Old

    Has anybody else seen this film? If you don't know about it, Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) was approached by the Imperial War Museum about four years ago, and given carte blanche to use their WW1 archive film. He combined it with interviews the BBC had done in the 1960's with WW1 veterans, and restored the film, adding sound and colour.

    One of the kids picked it up for me for Xmas, (I wasn't aware of the cinema run or TV transmission) and I finally got time to look at it the other day. It is pretty amazing. It's not a history of WW1, it is only about the experience of British troops in the Western Front, and is quite unapologetic about it.

    If anybody wants, Peter Jackson did a podcast about his involvement in the project in the BBC History Extra podcasts back in October, which is free.

    Viewers share their experiences of watching Peter Jackson's much-praised film, They Shall Not Grow Old.




    Peter Jackson, best known for directing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has created a new film using original footage from Imperial War Museums’ extensive archive,...
    Last edited by Flamingo; 3 January 2019, 23:02.
    'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
    'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
    Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
    He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
    http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

  • #2
    I watched it on TV it is excellent

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    • #3
      It was on BBC2 around Remembrance; absolutely excellent really brings the whole thing home.
      'History is a vast early warning system'. Norman Cousins

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      • #4
        Originally posted by spider View Post
        It was on BBC2 around Remembrance; absolutely excellent really brings the whole thing home.
        I don't know how I missed it then!
        'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
        'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
        Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
        He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
        http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

        Comment


        • #5
          has anyone a link to it..

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          • #6
            I don't think it's online, but clips are on youtube. I think some of the streaming services have it, but obviously there will be a charge. It is worth paying for.
            'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
            'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
            Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
            He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
            http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Flamingo View Post
              I don't know how I missed it then!
              I think it was late on the Sunday night...if I'm right he employed lip-readers to work out what the troops were saying...then had voice overs with appropriate regional accents...as per cap-badges. A lot of the bit I saw were Manchester Regiment.

              Really, really well done.

              I think its easy to look at B&W footage or photos and forget that these were just people like us
              'History is a vast early warning system'. Norman Cousins

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              • #8
                It's on Tuesday morning on BBC2, 12.15am - https://www.radiotimes.com/film/g2dw...-not-grow-old/

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                • #9
                  Saw it. excellent.

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                  • #10
                    Finished watching it this evening. Found it fascinating to see in colour. Three things stuck with me.
                    The working class lads their teeth were rotting in their heads.
                    They showed dead bodies of British Soldiers with horrible wounds which I think is unusual.
                    The line of men streaming back after an assault on Germans trenches. pitiful.

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                    • #11
                      It is the only TV programme I have recorded since the 2012 olympics opening and it is a treasure.
                      "Are they trying to shoot down the other drone? "

                      "No, they're trying to fly the tank"

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                      • #12
                        @sofa, the general physical condition of enlisted men fell as the war progressed, as the early manpower tended to be the Regulars with continuous service, good food, access to health care, access to regular pay and clean clothing and housing. Later recruits were found to be undersized for their age and poorly schooled and carrying conditions such as rickets, dreadful teeth, poor eyesight, poor diet and all the results of living in poverty and they were quite unable to cope with the demands of a soldier's life, being unable to march long distances, carry their scale of weapons and pack, engage in sustained labour, cope with excessive heat or cold, tolerate the kind of hard conditions found in India or the East and so on. The British military had to initiate feeding / building-up camps to build up the manpower to a level suitable for frontline service. They also had to ramp up access to general education, dentistry, general health, sports training, technical training and a host of other things that the ordinary soldier didnt have routine access to. Some recruits were the exception, such as miners, farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen who worked out of doors, Australians and New Zealanders in particular, Canadians and Americans also but a huge amount of the ordinary eligible manpower from the UK were unfit for purpose and casualty rates like the Somme contributed to the manpower crisis that the British faced in mid war.

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