They Shall Not Grow Old a box office blowout – for good reason
By Monica Showalter
FTA:
It’s the 100th anniversary of that war’s end, and the Imperial War Museum wanted someone to come in and look at its archives of grainy, jerky, faded, black and white footage to bring back to everyone today just what happened, show how that war looked. Jackson, the Academy Award-winning director of The Lord of the Rings, who has an artist’s eye for color, visuals, and framing a story, did a brilliant job framing this one through the eyes of the British ordinary soldiers in the war, having them tell their stories in the documentary, using oral histories from the BBC taken in the 1960s and 1970s, and pairing it with on-the-ground war footage of the soldiers themselves – signing up, uniforming up, acting like the World War II soldiers with “a job to do” – and dealing with trench warfare, privations, mustard gas attacks, Howitzer attacks, land mines, barbed wire, rats, lice, and bloody dead bodies, with considerable courage and aplomb. Not all of them were victims, as literary classics such as All Quiet on the Western Front or A Farewell to Arms suggested, worthy as those writings are (and what a pity the Millennials don’t read them). The soldiers cracked jokes, got used to deaths all around them, and dealt with the ordeal.
Jackson brought them and their stories to life and made us care about them by using new technologies to clean up the grainy, deteriorated archival film, colorizing it and making it appear recognizable. In doing that, he’s created a documentary that’s been called “breath-taking”; “astonishing”; “a masterpiece”; “an epic, enduring experience”; and “amazing, astounding, gorgeous, incredible.” Seriously, the documentary got some rave reviews, from the whole spectrum. Let me add my own since I saw it last night: magnificent!
TY for this post. Adding it to my list of things to watch.
From americanthinker re this movie:
They are going to further release it. (Yes!)
“The film will open in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington on Jan. 11, and then in 25 major media markets on Feb. 1, Super Bowl weekend.”
Hoping to see it!
From the end of your article about the WWI documentary movie by Jackson:
“...THE FILM WILL OPEN IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, AND WASHINGTON ON JAN. 11, AND THEN IN 25 MAJOR MEDIA MARKETS ON FEB. 1, SUPER BOWL WEEKEND. GIVEN THE PUBLIC’S DISGUST WITH THE NFL, IT’S A PERFECT WEEKEND FOR THE OPEN. It’s a flawless means of sending the message that political pollution is not what audiences want.
What’s more, Deadline says it missed the Academy Awards’ deadline for documentary, which it would deserve to have won if it were on that list. In a way, that makes it more of an honor, too, knowing it’s not polluted by Hollywood games.
What a refreshing difference. Yes, it’s a great documentary, and it’s great because it’s pure. No political correctness, no Hollywood gamesmanship.
Go see it when it comes to your town.”
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/they_shall_not_grow_old_a_box_office_blowout__and_for_good_reason.html#ixzz5b2TnFgNP
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