For a long time, the First World War has been so far away as if it were just a passage in a history textbook: The assassination of Grand Duke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo opened the curtain on the First World War. Since our country did not directly participate in World War I, the reputation of World War I in our country is pitifully low compared with World War II. But in fact, the impact of the First World War is very far-reaching. It can be said without reservation that the First World War directly changed the modern world structure. After the First World War, although Britain won, the country's economy fell into a slump. From now on, the empire fell behind the United States. Germany's defeat in the war was burdened with huge debts, which directly led to Hitler's power and World War II. After the First World War, the revolutionary consciousness of the people at the bottom awakened and began to gradually overthrow the corrupt royal families of various countries. France is in urgent need of labor. Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and others went to France for work-study programs, so as to plant a spark for the rise of China in the future.
Peter Jackson, a New Zealander who directed the epic masterpiece "Lord of the Rings", accepted a difficult task: The Imperial War Museum hopes that he can make a film about World War I. The requirement is to use the museum’s war history materials. Approximately 23,000 hours of video data, and 33,000 recordings of veterans. But at the same time, there must be originality, and it cannot flow into a running account.
After four years, PJ successfully completed this task. He told this history not from the perspective of the world pattern, but from the perspective of the British soldiers on the Western Front. Therefore, this film is more inclined to humanistic experience than political history. The whole film is an hour and a half, all the pictures are historical materials, there is no awkward interpretation of modern actors, no boring interviews with historians, everything is the original one hundred years ago. The background narrators are all veterans of the First World War, telling stories that only live in memories in those years. The coolest thing is that PJ and his team used modern technology to color the old video data and adjust the speed. Those ancient people in the fast-forward fuzzy historical materials suddenly came alive, and they can feel it through the screen. To their innocence, their fears, their sufferings.
For ordinary people, the outbreak of World War I was sudden. There was still a football match with the Germans. Suddenly, news came that Britain had declared war on Germany. But the mobilization of the country was powerful. Various slogans made the young boys excited, "In the future, your child will ask you, Dad, what did you do in the great war?" "Fight for England, don't be the next one." Belgium". The requirement for enlistment is 18-35 years old, but the enthusiastic teenagers lied about their age and also participated in the war. Some veterans recalled that the most feared thing at that time was that the war was over before I was on the battlefield. Compared with the American accent, the British accent is kind of dull and cute, and it is even more obvious in the film that the teenagers do not know the world.
They put on the best (probably the only) suit to join the conscription, but they were confiscated and replaced with unfit khaki uniforms and heavy military boots. After a brief and exciting military training, they set out to enter the Belgian battlefield. One week is faster than one week, and it takes a long time to go. As I walked forward, I heard the sound of gunfire getting closer. On the road, I met soldiers coming down from the front line. The young soldiers asked excitedly what was going on. The soldiers looked numb and said, "It's awful, buddy."
Soon, they faced the cruelty of the war, the barren and dilapidated no man's land, wrapped in dense barbed wire, with dead people hanging on the net. In the damp ditch, there are a large group of fat rats that eat dead bodies, and there are endless lice. When it is cold, the boots and the water in the ditch are frozen together. The frostbite is mild, and the severe one requires amputation. The chat was still in the last second, and the chat partner's head exploded in front of his eyes like a broken egg in the next second. You can't sleep on the ground in the trench, because there is water, so you can dig a hole in the trench and lie in it to sleep. There is no place to go to the toilet, only a ditch can be dug, and a board can be placed on it. Four people can sit on the board, all shit with bare buttocks. When you shit, because you are outside the trench, you have to worry about the Germans throwing a bomb. There is a video in the trench, which clearly sees the infinite fear on the faces of the baby-faced soldiers. PJ said that this was recorded before a very tragic battle. Basically everyone in this video was killed in the battle. This is their death. Video from the first 30 minutes.
When the war is not severe, the soldiers will gather together and have fun. Harmonica player, Scottish bagpipe player, catching frogs playing, feeding each other, holding bottles as guitars. Half-and-half children together can find endless fun in a difficult environment. Most of the people in the film are grinning most of the time. At that time, movies had just become popular. In the face of cameramen, everyone passing by was staring naively and shyly, and it was difficult to continue doing their own things. There are still people who don’t know the difference between videography and photography, standing there, smiling awkwardly, waiting for the photo to be completed (at that time, it took more than ten seconds to take a photo before imaging). These faces and eyes looking at the camera, after a hundred years of time, watching us, suddenly have a supernatural sense of communicating with the ancients.
The war had been fought for four years. At the end of the war, everyone was tired. The teenagers of the year had become malnourished and shaggy men. Only after seeing the German prisoners did they find that they were ordinary people. PJ's story is very neutral. In the movie, the Germans are brave and stubborn, but they are also ordinary people. They may be barbershops and hotel waiters before the war began. The captured Germans also had expressions of fear, and they opened their eyes blankly, for fear that they would be killed if they missed an expression of the British soldier in front of them.
When these soldiers returned to their hometowns, they realized that what was waiting for them was not the glory of receiving heroes, but the incomprehension of the people around them, and the tide of unemployment. This struggle between European royal families has brought ordinary people only pain and poverty. When he was in college, the gray-haired German professor told us that when he was a child, people in the village lacked arms and legs. At that time, he thought that normal is like that, and people are all that way, and they all lack arms. The legs, and then I realized how abnormal it was.
After the film was over, PJ came out to explain the process of making the film with his team, reading lip language, dubbing, finding information, coloring, such a huge and meticulous project, and then PJ, such a director who pursues the pursuit of surrealism, can achieve it. The final ending song is an old song "Miss of Armentière" from World War I. The tune is catchy and has a sense of rhythm. It should be compiled and sung when the soldiers are marching. It is about French trenches. The British soldiers and an old French woman had fun in their hardships. There is also a small episode of this ending song. PJ only remembered to use this song after the film was finished. It was too late to find someone to record in the UK. He used a New Zealander to imitate the British accent and didn't feel like it, destroying the overall sense of the movie. Finally, he called the British Embassy and found some of the people who can sing the most in the embassy. So these few tall, short, fat and thin diplomats, in the accompaniment of whistles and Scottish bagpipes, swayed in British accent. Sang such a song. The effect was surprisingly good, as if it were just a few British soldiers improvised together, singing such a vulgar song while marching, not knowing what the purpose of the war was.
The First World War was one of the worst wars in history, with 10 million soldiers killed in action, and countless other injuries plagued and died prematurely. PJ said at the end that his greatest wish is that this film allows people to ask their grandparents about the memory of that time, because their parents may have told them about this history. And in a few years, when our grandparents pass away, this history will really become distant. Thank you PJ for presenting this dusty history before us with a humble craftsmanship. Some of those young soldiers buried their bones in a foreign land, and some had gray-haired children, but they were always alive because of this film.
Attached are the simplified lyrics of "Miss Armentière" (the song itself repeats too many paragraphs), often this kind of joyous saliva song, because it is a hundred years ago, but there is a dark gothic meaning in it . Another similar song is "A Wreath of Roses", which is a dark nursery rhyme from the time of the Black Death in Europe.
Miss Armentière
Miss Armentière, she hasn't been kissed in forty years
Miss Armentière, our soldiers broke her forty years of curse
Miss Armentière, you don’t need to know her for long to understand why the soldiers are crazy about her.
The lady of Armentière, she is the hardest girl in town, she lay down to make money
Miss Armentière, she sells a kiss for ten francs, soft and juicy like a peach
Miss Armentière, madam, you have a good daughter, wash the underwear for the soldiers
I don’t care what I become, so I joined the infantry regiment
Miss Armentière, I went to her bed, she was really funny, swinging her ass, like a machine gun
Miss Armentière, I’m so happy that I can’t describe it under her sheets.
Miss Armentière, she winked and said "Oui, oui, let me see what you can do to me"
They said they designed this war, they said they designed this war, but what are we moving forward?
Miss Armentière, she hasn't been kissed for forty years
The officers get all the steaks, and we only get stomach pains
You may forget the poison gas and the cannonballs, you may forget the groans and shouts, but you will not forget the ladies
The lady of Armentière, many married people want to go back to France.
Miss Armentière, as long as we wipe off our nose and tears, we will be able to go home soon.
Miss Armentière, I am in love with her, my sheets have been wet all night
You may forget the poison gas and the cannonballs, you may forget the groans and shouts, but you will not forget the ladies
You may forget the poison gas and the cannonballs, you may forget the groans and shouts, but you will not forget the ladies
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