I finally got to see “They Shall Not Grow Old” today at the theater.
15 year olds volunteering to go off to war. The trenches and chemical warfare and the miles of barbed wire. Constantly being hammered by artillery, picked off by snipers. The horrid living conditions in trenches, with mud and rats and lice, and the dead everywhere.
It’s one thing to read about it, but to see it brought to life with color and sound. It was both amazing and horrifying.
I found myself welling up at the end, don’t know why. I have no close connection to WWI. I’m a 10 year Army vet so maybe I could relate just a little, maybe it was the disregard for the value of life.
I found it amusing how some things have not changed in the boot camp phase from 1914 to when i went through.
The sheer numbers of people who died as a result of WW1 is too much to comprehend. 16-17 million directly, with up to 50 million more from the spread of the Spanish Flu linked directly to the massing of soldiers from all over the world and returning home. Human Race altering events.
There was a 20-30 minute bonus at the end from Peter Jackson on how it was restored and put together and why he took on the project. Amazing work