They Shall Not Grow Old Film Review

3/22/2021

1. What Problems did the soldiers face fighting and living in the trenches?
2. How would you describe the food they ate?
3. How did viewing WW1 footage in HD-Color change your perception of the Great War? Explain.

8 Comments

jullyan zuniga P3

3/22/2021 11:06:41 am

1. They dealt with fear of starting the fighting and some of them weren't prepared for what would come next.
2. The food they ate were only what they needed it was nothing special only to keep them nurtured
3. It didn't really change my perspective i already knew that the great war was very brutal and gruesome. All the color change did for me was show me the injuries in more detail. Nothing is clean in war all the injuries are gruesome.

Serina Li Per 3

3/22/2021 11:21:52 am

1. The soldiers were expected to fight and keep on watch even when resting, which was incredibly stressful. It was also difficult to live in the trenches. There were no toilet paper, no privacy, and rats were all over the place.
2. The food they ate wasn't perfect in terms of proportion and quality, but it was better than nothing. The food was exceptional for war back then.
3. I can see a lot of information and gory scenes now. It exhibit more fears, in my experience, demonstrating how terrifying war is. Don't get me wrong, war is terrifying in general, but the use of color conveys so many emotions.

Iliana Encinares Period 1

3/23/2021 09:12:45 am

1. Some of the problems that the soldiers had faced while in the trenches ranged from the lack of being mentally prepared for war to the lack of sleep. Aside from that the living conditions that they lived in weren't the best and the trenches were swarmed with rats. The unsanitary conditions of where they stayed also contributed to the amount of disease that was prominent in the trenches. And as the textbook states, "Life in the trenches was pure misery. “The
men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate mud, and
dreamed mud,” wrote one soldier." (Textbook 423)
2. The food that they ate was never fresh: "Fresh food was nonexistent." (Textbook 423). Instead they usually ate the bare minimum that they needed to survive, and rationed it out in order to keep the supply up. Due to the vast amount of soldiers in the army, the delivery of food to the front no longer contained any freshness. Instead it was already stale, had gone bad, or was cold. Thus also showing that food was another problem that the soldiers faced during their time in the trenches.
3. My perception of the Great War has become less than ideal, much like how the soldiers who first went to war felt (though I already knew that war is nothing to romanticize). I already knew that the scenes were going to be gruesome, but I wasn't prepared to hear first encounters of the war from veterans. As of now how I viewed the war has gone way down in terms of how the soldiers were treated, but how I viewed the war as a whole is the same.

Cindy Wu Period 2

3/24/2021 03:07:43 pm

1. The problems were the soldiers not being prepared for the fight because of the lack of sleep they were getting and also their living situation was bad. People in the trenches slept in mud, ate mud, and also washed in mud. The trenches were also swarmed with rats.
2. The food the soldiers ate weren't the best. But they still ate it because it was better than nothing and they needed the energy to survive and fight.
3. It didn't really change my view. It just made the injuries more vivid and worst.

Megan Liu, per. 3

3/25/2021 08:47:49 am

1. Some of the problems the soldiers faced was that the trenches were extremely dirty and unsanitary.
2. The food was stale, and it was the bare minimum needed for the soldiers to survive.
3. Seeing the footage in color helped me to see and understand better of what the soldiers went through.

Sean L

3/26/2021 12:44:58 am

The soldiers faced exhaustion, poor hygiene, hot lead, flames, machines of war, risk of life, limb, and sanity. Their food was in all essence the equivalent to that year old stale loaf nobody remembered to fish out of the calcium solution and topped with a layer of dust and ants. Viewing the video doesn't change my perceptions much since I already understood the general concept and what the war entailed to some extent.War is not a happy place. Emotions are confusing, but the roots of these miracles of consciousness can be taken apart and understood for a better connection to the subject from which said emotions are coming. I mean... it's certainly not the most comfortable experience... but there isn't much new information to add...

Anthony Avitia

3/26/2021 09:09:56 am

1. With soldiers fighting in close proximity in the trenches, usually in unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever were common and spread rapidly.
2. The soldiers good was not good at all it was barley enough to keep them from surviving.
3. and technology into modern warfare. These advances changed the nature of warfare including battle strategies and tactics. Scientists and inventors on both sides worked throughout the war to improve weapon technology in order to give their side an edge in the fight.

Kenneth Ly - Period 3 link

3/27/2021 07:22:08 pm

1. The soldiers dwelled under unsanitary living conditions in the narrow trenches, which were filled with dirt and infested with rats and lice. Bunkers within the trenches were small and cramped for comfortable sleep or napping. There was no privacy either; soldiers slept huddled together in groups and urinated or defecated at benches side-by-side with each other. During battle, corpses of fallen soldiers were usually disposed around or in the trenches to rot, attracting pests and producing an undesirable stench.

2. The food they ate were canned and provided meager nutrition for the soldiers' health. These quick military meals were disliked by the soldiers, nonetheless they were obliged to be eaten as they were the only viable source of food for survival. Occasionally soldiers have brought or received special food sent by their loved ones, but there was no way of preparing them so they become discarded.

3. Before seeing this HD-Color footage, I found it difficult to comprehend the experiences of war; black-and-white film wasn't particularly helpful and made it seem like a distant, ungraspable past. My initial anticipation of the film was disgust of the inhumaneness of the living conditions during combat, but I soon found an appreciation for the soldiers who valiantly fought despite the risk of death or injury. In the chaotic din of active combat in a battlefield, your fears of death are dispelled as they don't matter anymore--it's now all about your efforts for your own side. This is what I felt while watching the colorized footage of active combat with sound--it was certainly easier to empathize with the soldiers shown in the footage, especially with the narrations by these war veterans.

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