They Shall Not Grow Old

i watched it, thought it was an absolutely fantastic film. the utter futility of it summed up with the last conversation when the bloke went back to work after the war, and someone said to him "where've you been, on night shift?"
Funnily enough; the comment about the night shifts - hit me for 6! Having experienced what they had; their efforts were not necessarily acknowledged.
 
I thought it was excellent. It's the first time I got a true sense of what it was really like but I think this was just the tip of the iceberg.

It should've been shown a lot earlier in the day and on BBC1.
It should be shown at every school too.

It's also strange that after seeing all the graphic images and hearing the harrowing accounts, it's the final sentence which floored me too. "Where you been I thought you were on nights?" How do you get over that?
 
Excellent...I also thought final scene in the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth was poignant, powerful and a very special moment in British TV...the actors, by all accounts were also deeply moved filming it...

 
I thought it was amazing. I have probably seen most of the footage before....but colour brought it home. I also was struck by the final comments and nothing has changed. Civilians just can not comprehend what it is like to be in a war situation. I think that this film should be required viewing for all school children
 
My inner Pedant, despite days and days of suppression, insists that I mention the correct title of the film should have been "They Shall Grow Not Old"

When I read this, I hear Lawrence Olivier's voice in my head for some reason. I think maybe Alec Guinness would be a better reader.

For the Fallen
BY LAURENCE BINYON
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
 
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I have seen it & it is eerily touching. I have read several WWI memoirs as well as countless books on the war. Robert Graves' Good-Bye to All That is an extremely difficult read as he was an incredibly intelligent & educated man. I highly recommend it for one of the best accounts of the war by a subaltern.
 
Truly amazing film. Definitely think films or documentaries like this should be shown on the curriculum in schools so the current young generation can appreciate the sacrifices those brave men and women made.
 
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