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History, Reference, Research, and GrogTalk => Military (and other) History => Topic started by: Con on October 09, 2018, 07:31:08 PM

Title: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: Con on October 09, 2018, 07:31:08 PM
Peter Jackson has brought his magic to the WWI films.  Pretty amazing stuff More links below

https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/peter-jackson-they-shall-not-grow-old
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6258593/Soldiers-trenches-WWI-revealed-exactly-looked-100-years-ago.html#v-1663599981387234295
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: Gusington on October 09, 2018, 07:55:32 PM
Wow.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: JasonPratt on October 09, 2018, 08:05:57 PM
Looking forward to getting this from BBC eventually!  :bd:
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: W8taminute on October 10, 2018, 07:33:40 AM
Wow that's amazing!
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: Steelgrave on October 10, 2018, 08:05:34 AM
Outstanding!
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: bob48 on October 10, 2018, 09:08:19 AM
I saw the preview a few days back - it looks stunning.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: Con on October 10, 2018, 09:32:13 AM
In an interview Jackson said that the trickiest part was restoring the film to good black and white quality.
This involved massive amounts of computer work and experience in special effects.
Along with removing blurs/scratches/grain in the film the biggest change was taking film that was at 14 frames or less and converting to 16+ (regular 35mm fps) where the computer and software have to build the interleaving frames from the original films.
Jackson said he has digitized over 100 hours of Imperial WWI archives and hopes to be able to do other museum and countries collections the same.

Here is hoping that we see future documentaries covering Gallipoli/Palestine/Naval/German side etc. with this newly (restored seems to be an inaccurate term recreated perhaps?) archival films.

Con
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: W8taminute on October 10, 2018, 10:36:49 AM
^Agreed.  I'd like to see this applied to WW2 archive films as well.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: ArizonaTank on November 30, 2018, 03:09:31 AM
US showings on Dec 17 and 27.

I'll be there.

US trailer below

Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 18, 2018, 04:27:12 PM
Saw it last night for its US release.  Wonderful documentary. Anyone with interest in WWI should see it.  Last US show date is Dec 27. 

The theater was almost full, with a pretty large variety in the crowd in terms of age groups.  I hope that this film is commercially viable enough that other WWI topics are explored, the US' participation for example.   

I plan on seeing it again.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 29, 2018, 12:34:33 PM
My daughter, after a recent trip to the UK, gave me a Blueray copy of They Shall Not Grow Old for Christmas.  Now I just need a multi-region DVD player. :dreamer:
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: bbmike on December 29, 2018, 01:31:52 PM
It's coming to the Smithsonian in DC next month. I'm hoping to get to see it. I'm going to try like hell to.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: JasonPratt on December 29, 2018, 01:48:16 PM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 29, 2018, 12:34:33 PM
My daughter, after a recent trip to the UK, gave me a Blueray copy of They Shall Not Grow Old for Christmas.  Now I just need a multi-region DVD player. :dreamer:

Isn't Great Britain in Blu-Ray Region A?  ??? As far as I know there are only three Blu Regions.

Edited: ack, no, Region B.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: Gusington on December 29, 2018, 02:38:31 PM
I really hope this available streaming at some point.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: ArizonaTank on January 06, 2019, 07:50:18 PM
US Box office exceeded expectations and broke the record for revenue for similar types of events.  Good news! This should encourage more releases.

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/peter-jacksons-they-shall-not-grow-old-cumulative-box-office-gross-reaches-57-million-becoming-top-us-event-cinema-release-2018-12-28 (https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/peter-jacksons-they-shall-not-grow-old-cumulative-box-office-gross-reaches-57-million-becoming-top-us-event-cinema-release-2018-12-28)
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: airboy on January 21, 2019, 09:04:19 PM
I just saw it at a 4:00pm show in Auburn, AL.  For whatever reason they released it again at a number of AMC theaters for one day only.  There were maybe 12 of us at this showing.

It is well worth seeing.  There is a 30 minute show immediately following the main film which gave a lot of the technical background.  What Con was talking about was in that.

The movie has no historians, academics etc....  It focuses only on WW1 ground combat on the Western Front with UK troops.  There is no discussion of strategy and very little about tactics.  There is not any real story line to speak of, other than what a person in ground warfare would experience from recruiting through the armistice.  Almost all of the dialogue was from recorded interviews done in the 1960s and 1970s - so the voices were of survivors.

It was very good, I've never seen a war documentary quite like this one.  They did a wonderful job adding voice material to silent B/W footage.  They colorized some of the stuff - but it was really well done (the technical 30 minutes at the end explained what they did).
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: besilarius on January 30, 2019, 07:46:15 PM
If you're in the DC area, just heard an announcement that this is showing on the   
Smithsonian's IMAX theaters, including at Udvar-Hazy.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: ArizonaTank on April 20, 2019, 10:45:32 PM
They Shall Not Grow Old is now streaming on Amazon Prime for those who missed it elsewhere.
Title: Re: They shall not grow old - WWI
Post by: Gusington on April 20, 2019, 10:50:36 PM
Thanks!