I wonder, if Ted's colorization had been as lovingly meticulous, it might have received better. It was comparatively quite crude. But I buy the idea of the different artistic techniques of B&W film.
In any case, those guys sitting around mugging at the camera aren't "Casablanca." Jackson's work is restoration and OK, some amplification of historical artifact. And it's magic.
Your essay and the comments cause me to look for the chance to see the film. Bringing this bit of history more alive is critical to those in their teens and 20s, and similarities with the current standoff in Ukraine should be pondered.
I’ll have to add this to my “must see” list. I avoid war films but this sounds like it would be worth the discomfort.
On a related note, not too long ago I had a conversation with a person in her early thirties. She told me that for many of her contemporaries, WWII, and especially the Holocaust, held no emotional meaning and was only something they’d read about in history class. In fact, many of them doubted the veracity of the magnitude of the savagery and inhumanity of that time. I suppose this is a repeated phenomenon. I guess it could also be a part of the reason for the antipathy many young people feel toward Israel and Jews in general.
You and Ted Gioia are my absolute favorite Substackers. Within a couple of days you post this about film technology of the late 1910s and Ted posts about how the change in recording technology from the 1920s to the 1930 is the reason 1920s jazz aged so fast. I absolutely adored Jackson's film -- I went to see it in a theater and then bought a DVD. And I absolutely adore 1920s jazz -- pops, clicks, and all. But I wish someone could contrive to do for Bix Beiderbecke and King Oliver what Jackson did.
Mr Bastiat: If you're interested in documenting eugenics, be sure to look at the publication "Abstracts of the First International Eugenics Congress", which was held at the University of London in 1912. It's available on gutenberg.org (publication #44948). I'm sure all of the people participating in the congress were humane and well-intentioned; but in these papers one can see the road to Auschwitz being paved.
Contra Santayana, history may not really repeat itself... but it damn sure gives you some serious pop quizzes! And thanks for the refresh on "They Shall Not Grow Old" - a compelling, evocative piece of work. My grandfather's war.
This is outstanding; thank you for such a thoughtful review of a fantastic film. We took our children, college aged, to see the film and they were awe-struck. I find myself part of a shrinking demographic of people who would love to tour the battlefields of WWI. But there was so much tragedy, so much loss of innocence, so much ending of eras that I can't help but be drawn to it. Looking forward to your thoughts on eugenics. Keep up the great writing sir!
Before you move on from this, I want to recommend a few books to those who want more. First is a trilogy by Norman Gladden, a veteran of the Somme, Passchendaele, and the Piave campaigns with the British Army. His accounts are fairly harrowing but less gory than they could have been, I suspect.
The other I've just started but am enjoying thoroughly. Titled "Sons of Freedom," by Geoffrey Wawro, it's a history of the American involvement in the war. The author's thesis is simply that, without us, the Germans would have won the war. Period. He's a gifted and engaging writer
That the Past Shall Not Grow Old
That was the last movie that I saw in a theater, and we hadn't been to any movies for 5 years before then. It was a marvelous film.
I wonder, if Ted's colorization had been as lovingly meticulous, it might have received better. It was comparatively quite crude. But I buy the idea of the different artistic techniques of B&W film.
In any case, those guys sitting around mugging at the camera aren't "Casablanca." Jackson's work is restoration and OK, some amplification of historical artifact. And it's magic.
Your essay and the comments cause me to look for the chance to see the film. Bringing this bit of history more alive is critical to those in their teens and 20s, and similarities with the current standoff in Ukraine should be pondered.
I’ll have to add this to my “must see” list. I avoid war films but this sounds like it would be worth the discomfort.
On a related note, not too long ago I had a conversation with a person in her early thirties. She told me that for many of her contemporaries, WWII, and especially the Holocaust, held no emotional meaning and was only something they’d read about in history class. In fact, many of them doubted the veracity of the magnitude of the savagery and inhumanity of that time. I suppose this is a repeated phenomenon. I guess it could also be a part of the reason for the antipathy many young people feel toward Israel and Jews in general.
You and Ted Gioia are my absolute favorite Substackers. Within a couple of days you post this about film technology of the late 1910s and Ted posts about how the change in recording technology from the 1920s to the 1930 is the reason 1920s jazz aged so fast. I absolutely adored Jackson's film -- I went to see it in a theater and then bought a DVD. And I absolutely adore 1920s jazz -- pops, clicks, and all. But I wish someone could contrive to do for Bix Beiderbecke and King Oliver what Jackson did.
Mr Bastiat: If you're interested in documenting eugenics, be sure to look at the publication "Abstracts of the First International Eugenics Congress", which was held at the University of London in 1912. It's available on gutenberg.org (publication #44948). I'm sure all of the people participating in the congress were humane and well-intentioned; but in these papers one can see the road to Auschwitz being paved.
Contra Santayana, history may not really repeat itself... but it damn sure gives you some serious pop quizzes! And thanks for the refresh on "They Shall Not Grow Old" - a compelling, evocative piece of work. My grandfather's war.
This is outstanding; thank you for such a thoughtful review of a fantastic film. We took our children, college aged, to see the film and they were awe-struck. I find myself part of a shrinking demographic of people who would love to tour the battlefields of WWI. But there was so much tragedy, so much loss of innocence, so much ending of eras that I can't help but be drawn to it. Looking forward to your thoughts on eugenics. Keep up the great writing sir!
Before you move on from this, I want to recommend a few books to those who want more. First is a trilogy by Norman Gladden, a veteran of the Somme, Passchendaele, and the Piave campaigns with the British Army. His accounts are fairly harrowing but less gory than they could have been, I suspect.
The other I've just started but am enjoying thoroughly. Titled "Sons of Freedom," by Geoffrey Wawro, it's a history of the American involvement in the war. The author's thesis is simply that, without us, the Germans would have won the war. Period. He's a gifted and engaging writer