"They Shall Not Grow Old" Peter Jackson's WWI film

[croyde]

During the Falklands War, a place I'd never heard of until then, I overheard a bloke in a pub.

'Well if they bomb us, we'll just bomb Rio de Janeiro'

[aeropilot]

croyde said:

During the Falklands War, a place I'd never heard of until then, I overheard a bloke in a pub.

'Well if they bomb us, we'll just bomb Rio de Janeiro'

And the Brazilians got very nervous thinking exactly that was happening when Vulcan XM597 emergency diverted to Rio after its refuelling probe broke on its way back to Ascension after a Black Buck raid in the FI.......

http://www.brasilwire.com/when-the-raf-dropped-in-...

Edited by aeropilot on Friday 16th November 09:17

[Eyersey1234]

I watched this on iPlayer, really well made and moving.

[Eric Mc]

aeropilot said:

ash73 said:

Would have liked to see the Royal Flying Corps mentioned, with some footage.

I'm guessing that back in 196* when the BBC recorded those interviews, they didn't interview any RFC survivors, or RN, etc., and the whole purpose of this film was to make use of those historic recorded interviews and combine them with suitable, re-mastered footage as a back-drop.
This wasn't meant to be a encapsulating documentary of all aspects of WW1.

Knowing Jackson's infatuation with RFC and RNAS aircraft, I wouldn't be surprised if he has something in the pipeline on that score. The problem would be the very small amount of genuine 1914-18 footage of British aircraft in action. There are numerous interviews in various archives with WW1 flyers. There are also lots of autobiographies which could be read from if required.

[Riley Blue]

Eric Mc said:

aeropilot said:

ash73 said:

Would have liked to see the Royal Flying Corps mentioned, with some footage.

I'm guessing that back in 196* when the BBC recorded those interviews, they didn't interview any RFC survivors, or RN, etc., and the whole purpose of this film was to make use of those historic recorded interviews and combine them with suitable, re-mastered footage as a back-drop.
This wasn't meant to be a encapsulating documentary of all aspects of WW1.

Knowing Jackson's infatuation with RFC and RNAS aircraft, I wouldn't be surprised if he has something in the pipeline on that score. The problem would be the very small amount of genuine 1914-18 footage of British aircraft in action. There are numerous interviews in various archives with WW1 flyers. There are also lots of autobiographies which could be read from if required.

During the post-film interview with Jackson that accompanied the cinema showing he mentioned that he wouldn't have been able to do justice to the whole of WW1 (his budget was for a half-hour film) so he had deliberately focussed on the trench war. He hoped, he said, that the same techniques would be used on other historical footage, not just documentary, so it's possible a whole lot of other B/W silent film may receive the 'treatment'.

[Halmyre]

aeropilot said:

croyde said:

During the Falklands War, a place I'd never heard of until then, I overheard a bloke in a pub.

'Well if they bomb us, we'll just bomb Rio de Janeiro'

And the Brazilians got very nervous thinking exactly that was happening when Vulcan XM597 emergency diverted to Rio after its refuelling probe broke on its way back to Ascension after a Black Buck raid in the FI.......

http://www.brasilwire.com/when-the-raf-dropped-in-...

Edited by aeropilot on Friday 16th November 09:17

They weren't seriously thinking we were going to bomb them, were they? They were worried about the diplomatic hoo-ha that would ensue.

That refuelling probe break must have been a real "oh, fk!" moment...

[RC1807]

Langweilig said:

RC1807 said:

I'm driving back to the UK for a couple of days next month. I'm stopping, for the first time, in Ypres. I've driven past it more than a hundred times over the last 20 years or so, and I'm ashamed I've not stopped to acknowledge, let alone bow to the memorials.
I will make up for that on 13th December.

I'd recommend that you visit the Menin Gate Memorial with its 40,000 names of those who've no known grave. If you can, attend the Last Post ceremony at the memorial. The roads are closed to traffic and the ceremony is held every evening.

Thanks.
I booked my hotel and it's very close to Menin Gate, so I will take the time. This year, more than ever before, I just felt I *had to* visit Ypres.
(Visited Verdun a few years ago. That brought more than a few tears to my eyes.)

[Europa1]

Langweilig said:

Take some time to visit Tyne Cot military cemetery. The world's largest military cemetery at Passchendaele. The number of burials and commemorations (four of them German) run well into five figures.

Edited by Langweilig on Wednesday 14th November 19:35

Edited by Langweilig on Wednesday 14th November 19:36

At Tyne Cot, what's left of the original pillbox is under the memorial and visible in a couple of places. Like the rest of the cemetery, very thought provoking.

[Chicken Chaser]

Europa1 said:

At Tyne Cot, what's left of the original pillbox is under the memorial and visible in a couple of places. Like the rest of the cemetery, very thought provoking.

I visited the Tyne Cot cemetery 2 years ago and was welling up at the sheer size of it. I didn't know that the memorial was the pillbox, but we had visited so many cemeteries across the Somme on that visit. If anyone hasn't been across to France to see what they fought over in that particular battle (the incredibly small area which claimed so many lives) then it's well worth it to help understand.

[aeropilot]

Chicken Chaser said:

Europa1 said:

At Tyne Cot, what's left of the original pillbox is under the memorial and visible in a couple of places. Like the rest of the cemetery, very thought provoking.

I visited the Tyne Cot cemetery 2 years ago and was welling up at the sheer size of it. I didn't know that the memorial was the pillbox

How it looked in 1922 when it was still a battlefield cemetery, with the battlescarred German blockhouse in the middle of the graves, and what they turned into the memorial with the cross on top.

[FourWheelDrift]

Two parts remaining in the centre of the squares of 4 trees left and right.

[Eric Mc]

ash73 said:

I'll just have to watch Blue Max again (for the millionth time).

Shot mostly in Ireland. Quite a few of the replicas built for the film were still stored in Ireland up until the late 1970s.

[Eyersey1234]

Langweilig said:

RC1807 said:

I'm driving back to the UK for a couple of days next month. I'm stopping, for the first time, in Ypres. I've driven past it more than a hundred times over the last 20 years or so, and I'm ashamed I've not stopped to acknowledge, let alone bow to the memorials.
I will make up for that on 13th December.

Edited by RC1807 on Tuesday 13th November 11:16

I'd recommend that you visit the Menin Gate Memorial with its 40,000 names of those who've no known grave. If you can, attend the Last Post ceremony at the memorial. The roads are closed to traffic and the ceremony is held every evening.




You could also visit the café/museum at Hill 62, Sanctuary Wood, Kemmel Hill, Ypres. I'll never forget my visit there in 1999. After I left the museum, I walked up a slight incline and the sight of the trenches - complete with authentic Flanders mud hit me in the face. I stood there thinking, "Dear God! Is this really what it was all about? How could any human being live in that filth for weeks on end? Yet with all, I couldn't overcome a strange compulsion to step down into the trench and stand in the mud. I discovered later that my grandfather (27495 L/Cpl James Henry Crozier. 10th Batt Royal Irish Fusiliers) and my great-grandfather (L/Cpl James Crozier. Winnipeg Fusiliers. Canadian Expeditionary Force) had both served there.




Take some time to visit Tyne Cot military cemetery. The world's largest military cemetery at Passchendaele. The number of burials and commemorations (four of them German) run well into five figures.

Edited by Langweilig on Wednesday 14th November 19:35

Edited by Langweilig on Wednesday 14th November 19:36

I went to Hill 62 as part of a school trip in 2003, really interesting and moving place. I remember going round one of the cemeteries nearby and seeing the ages of some of them were only two or three years older than I was at the time, really sobering.

[aeropilot]

Eyersey1234 said:

I went to Hill 62 as part of a school trip in 2003, really interesting and moving place. I remember going round one of the cemeteries nearby and seeing the ages of some of them were only two or three years older than I was at the time, really sobering.

My Grandmother's older brother was only a few months past his 19th birthday went he was KIA going over the top on the first day of the Battle of Loos in Sept 1915.

[liner33]

My Grandfathers uncles were gassed on Hill 62 in one of the first gas attacks of the way (Dorsetshire Rgt) , one died and my Grandfather was named after him.

[Voldemort]

Langweilig said:

I'd recommend that you visit the Menin Gate Memorial with its 40,000 names of those who've no known grave. If you can, attend the Last Post ceremony at the memorial. The roads are closed to traffic and the ceremony is held every evening.

Take some time to visit Tyne Cot military cemetery. The world's largest military cemetery at Passchendaele. The number of burials and commemorations (four of them German) run well into five figures.

Although the Menin Gate is massive it was discovered to be not big enough to list the missing, so the /cont is at Tyne Cot.

Wiki says 'On completion of the memorial, it was discovered to be too small to contain all the names as originally planned. An arbitrary cut-off point of 15 August 1917 was chosen and the names of 34,984 UK missing after this date were inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing instead'

[there are 54,395 listed on the Menin Gate - although, interestingly, that number is declining. As battlefield remains are identified they are given a full military funeral and the name is removed from the Menin Gate/Tyne Cot wall]

[RemyMartin81D]

We did a school history trip back in 1994 , did all the famous locations (Menin gate, Tyne cot, hill 62 etc)

I remember it to this day, it changed me completely as person cemented my interest in WW1 ever since and even to this day I could almost weep at the sheer scale of the death and numbers killed.

[Eyersey1234]

My grans uncle was KIA in 1916 when a shell went off prematurely, my mum and I were hoping to get out to France for the 100th anniversary but for various reasons sadly it didn't happen.

[danllama]

My girlfriend and I went to watch the film on remembrance day at Vue in Croydon, even though it was on TV at the same time. I have to say the film is powerful and affecting. I only wish I could pass on my gratitude personally to each and every one of the young men who were thrown in to the conflict. What a horrible waste of life. What more can be said?

[Voldemort]

danllama said:

What a horrible waste of life. What more can be said?

That WE MUST NOT LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.