For WWII that is a valid (though somewhat simplistic, because it leaves out why germany became so militaristic, i.e. versailles ) explanation of the cause of the war. For WWI i’m not su sure it was about that. Also, in WWI germany wasn’t really the ‘bad guy’ as much as in WWII. They were the losers (and hence the bad guys) of course, but WWI was in a way more of a continuation of the endless previous wars between Germany and France. At least that’s what France and Germany though going in. Read the wikipedia article about the causes of WWI to see what a diplomatic clusterfuck it was, with plenty of blame to go around on all participants.
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And water. The water coming up from the seas as well as the water coming down the mountains.
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I do not need to read any wiki on WWI or WWII…I know the details. And for a simple post on a blog thread…yeah, I don’t need to get into all the nuances. Germany in both cases pushed their expansion very fast and very aggressively. That’s boiled down yes…but it’s enough.
It was the case in BOTH wars unfortunately. The motivations behind that were different (open expansion/retaliation in WWI based on alliances and long held feuds vs totalitarian expansion in WWII).
I’m with you though.
Absolutely. There was only one isolated glitch throughout for me. I think the lipreaders slipped up. A guy says something like ‘here they come’ but it seems clear he really said ‘here we go’ - as the camera pans by and he then says something like ‘we’re on film lads’.
(I saw it a week or three ago so cannot remember verbatim.)
Running old film at incorrect speeds and the laziness in not adapting it (to TV scanning rates) to portray action at a natural speed is something that drives me mad. Well done to Peter Jackson for making sure this was all so natural.
Also see this letter in The Observer last Sunday, which I think makes a good point about the credits: Letters: nuclear energy is key to our future | Nuclear power | The Guardian (second letter down: text below)
Honour the unsung heroes
Tim Adams noted that when he went to see Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old “everyone in the cinema stayed in silence to watch the credits” (“We properly honour the past when we remember in new and vital ways”, Comment). Good for them: to pay attention to all those who made such a remarkable film is to acknowledge their part in the achievement.
The many names on screen do not, however, include a single one of the cameramen who originally took the film on which Jackson and his team have worked their digital magic. It is an astonishing omission. Without Geoffrey Malins, JB McDowell and the dozen or so other “official kinematographers” from Britain and the Dominions who filmed on the western front between 1915 and 1918, They Shall Not Grow Old would not exist. They, more than anyone, deserve recognition.
Roger Smither
London SE22
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I hope it will be released on DVD so we can get it for our library.
We have rather hit or miss coverage of ‘recent’ wars. Not much on WWI, a fair bit on WWII (Hawaii being the purported reason we engaged), not much again on Korea, ditto Vietnam. Some recent books about the ongoing militarization and ‘police actions’ for the last 30-odd years. People rarely ask for the information, but I consider making it available necessary to history.
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3D? I rather doubt it. No 3D cameras making moving pictures in 1914-1918, surely.
Watched it on TV (BBC) and it was stunning.
That’s a bit of a spoiler, but anyone expecting the colour needs to sit still for that first 20 minutes or so, for sure. When it happens - wow!
ETA Re this
A quite brilliant documentary also on the BBC “WWI: The Final Hours” covered the railway-carriage negotiation of the Armistice. The French Field-Marshall Foch walked away predicting WWII. Worth finding if you have access to iPlayer (or other “sources”)
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That was actually the very first clip with voices in the trailer, and the lips didn’t match the voice, which made me wonder how the rest would be. Glad to know the rest syncs well.
It’s been converted to 3D via some sort of Peter Jackson magic.
It does, as does the background noise. Horses and guns especially. I cannot recommend it enough.
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Thanks to nuclear weapons, there probably won’t be a third. Or if there is, it will truly be the war to end all wars. In both world wars, the cost was initially born by “disposable” lower class young men, while the elites who started them could sit happily and safely at home or in the rear, cheering them on. Strategic bombing started to change that calculus, while ICBMs upturned it.
this was pure genius, simple but extremly effective. jackson is a good filmmaker after all (I really had my doubts).
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I had zero doubts after Lord of the Rings, which — whatever your feelings on his choices in adapting it — was a monumental filmmaking effort.
I’ll give him a mulligan on The Hobbit as he was stuck more or less being forced to direct a movie he’d never planned to direct.
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Spending a lot of time in Australia and New Zealand over the past decade has shown how important ANZAC and Gallipoli and the first world war still are to the people and cultures there.
I was at the dawn service in Wellington last year for ANZAC day with thousands of other people and it was extremely moving.
Te Papa museum also had a great exhibit on Gallipoli (I believe it was the 100th anniversary?) with larger than life size models by Weta. It was astonishing and appalling and moving and I went twice on my last trip.
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He could have cut a good 20+ minutes from King Kong. It was still fun but a lot of stuff dragged on way too long.
ETA and he really could have cut The Hobbit down to two films. The first I really enjoyed and it didn’t feel like it was as long as it was. The other 2 felt way longer than the run time.
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IIRC, Jackson wanted to do the Hobbit as two movies, but WB execs pressured him into making it a trilogy, to match LotR.
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I cannot agree more. Two films would have suited it quite well. Stretching it to three (as @lurksnomore says, against his wishes) made for a lot of filler.
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Yup and it was done in a very understated way, nothing showy or bombastic; it was in the speeded up black and white scratchy footage in a tiny aspect ratio then it was suddenly in colour. I would’ve loved to have seen this in the cinema, by all accounts it’s a profound experience seeing it on a huge screen during that transition.
I think i read somewhere that the real technical feat of this wasn’t the colourisation (undoubtedly impressive) but getting the speed right.
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May I suggest not to try to blame the Versailles, both as a chiffre and as the treaty, for the development of Germany towards facism, including the obsessive presentation of military strength? Especially not as an i.e. - an e.g. would probably get a pass, but even this would be an argument shortened to the attention span of a toddler. If you forgive my being a bit hyperbolic here.
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Kurt Vonnegut did, though:
“So this book is a sidewalk strewn with junk, trash which I throw over my shoulders as I travel in time back to November eleventh, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
And all music is.”
-Breakfast of Champions
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Well, the First World War was certainly fought by expansive militaristic nations with far-reaching tendrils in order to stop other militaristic nations from expanding. It was a war to keep colonial power in the hands of those who grabbed much of the world first.
