PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: asechrest on January 22, 2019, 10:05:18 AM
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Has anyone seen it?
Directed and produced by Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame). He took 100 year old archive footage from WWI and remastered it, including colorization (done better that any you've ever seen, probably). Considering the challenges of remastering film that old, it's a fantastic job. He also hired forensic lip readers to understand what the people on film were saying, and dubbed voice-over in parts. The film is "narrated" by archived audio from interviews with WWI veterans. I saw it in 3D, even though I don't usually do 3D films, and it was tasteful. There is a 30 minute segment after the film about how they did the remastering.
The film was interesting. I wouldn't call it riveting, but it certainly gives life to those who served in WWI, and helps you understand the experiences they endured. I took my step son to see it, and he enjoyed it. He's 12. Some parents may be concerned with some of the images it shows, but in my opinion it was ok for him to see, given that it helps him understand what real people went through in the first great war.
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My grandfather fought in WW1.
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I will have to track this down. There really isn't much on WWI I assume due to the poor film technology of the time. All wars are horrible, but again we saw technology more advanced than tactics like the Civil War in some respects.
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My grandfather fought in WW1.
As did mine. Battery D, 359th Field artillery. His training notes and diary are interesting reading.
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My Grandfather was a Philly cop so wasn't drafted. Only reason my Grandmother married him. Her fiancé was drafted and went to Europe in the Army to fight in WWI.
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Thanks for the pirep asechrest! I look forward to seeing it.
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I have two grandfathers that fought in WWI, on opposite sides! The one said "Screw Europe, I'm gonna move to America, the winners."
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Thanks for the pirep asechrest! I look forward to seeing it.
Just FYI, this is not a mainstream release. It's that "special event" cinema you might have heard about or have seen the previews for when seeing other movies. Fathom Events is the organization handling it. It was slated for a one-day release on Nov 11th - Armistice Day. It did $5M+ and broke records for event cinema. They had another one-day release in December. And this was the third one-day showing. I'm not sure if they'll do another showing.
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Two crushing moments in the film -
1) Audio of a vet interviewed in the '60s, who came upon a fellow soldier with an arm and leg blown off and part of his face (IIRC). He shot him to end the misery, and her speaks about how much that affected him.
2) Multiple vets talking about how, after the war, the civilian population did not welcome them. They had terrible times finding jobs. Many places that were hiring specifically posted that no vets were desired. No one wanted to talk about the war.
Many of them lied about their age to join the fight. I knew that. But what struck me is how many of them considered it a grande adventure, not knowing the hell it would become. But at 14/15/16 years old, how could you be expected to know? How much of the volume or success of the fighting force was dependent upon the absolute naivete of "kids" joining the war (and I use those quotes lightly)?
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I took my son to it. He is 13.
We talked about it beforehand and again after. I pointed out that 15 year old boys going to war is very close to his turning 14 years old in March.
The footage is very gruesome. It shows what the men really had to deal with in the trenches.
As it was a British documentary done at the point of view of British front line soldiers, the Dough Boys were not even mentioned.
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Expanded release Feb 1st:
https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1030673-peter-jacksons-wwi-documentary-they-shall-not-grow-old-expanding
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Wasn't World War I the war to end all wars? Twenty one years later WWII began. Guess the corporations needed a jump start, exchanging young men for profits, yet again.
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Wasn't World War I the war to end all wars? Twenty one years later WWII began. Guess the corporations needed a jump start, exchanging young men for profits, yet again.
A lot of debate about the underlying causation of WW2.
IMO, it was WW2 that awoke the military industrial complex and they realized wars were very profitable. That's one reason we jumped right into Korea 5 years later, but only as a "police action". It was in this same time frame that indochina was a glisten in the MIC's eye and they could see huge profits by "fighting communism".
On Korea, the MIC would actually hate to see an end to that conflict and a reunification of the peninsula. Since 1953 that area has continued to be profitable.
Same reason we are still in Afghanistan to this day. Profits.
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I think most if not all wars have economics as their cause. However, when companies went global during and after the Industrial Revolution, I think lines between countries got blurred. Dupont, Ford, and others profited from both sides in both World Wars. In Europe, our ties were strong. Not so much now days as our enemies, at least on the surface are no longer European, but Russia, and China. We are not naturally tied to those two country as we are with Europe.
Maybe I am being overly cynical.
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I think most if not all wars have economics as their cause. However, when companies went global during and after the Industrial Revolution, I think lines between countries got blurred. Dupont, Ford, and others profited from both sides in both World Wars. In Europe, our ties were strong. Not so much now days as our enemies, at least on the surface are no longer European, but Russia, and China. We are not naturally tied to those two country as we are with Europe.
Maybe I am being overly cynical.
During VN it was not uncommon to go into a VC tunnel or encampment and find American produced products that made their way into N VN via China.
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WWII was essentially an extension of WWI.