Lex Anteinternet: As we pass 700,000 views, the State of the Blog(s)...

Lex Anteinternet: As we pass 700,000 views, the State of the Blog(s)...: Lex Anteinternet Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter. ...

Foch Memorial, Paris France

This statue in Paris is in memory of Ferdinand Foch.

Foch was a significant French commander throughout World War One with military service dating back to the Franco Prussian War.  In March 1918 he became the supreme Allied commander, a role which he occupied until the end of the war.

Joffre Memorial, Paris France

This is the memorial to Joseph Joffre, who was commander of the French forces in World War One from the start of the war into 1916.  While he was basically promoted up out of that position in 1916, his early leadership in the war was responsible for the French being able to stop the tide of the German advance.

Lex Anteinternet: They Shall Not Grow Old

Lex Anteinternet: They Shall Not Grow Old:

They Shall Not Grow Old

You still have time to see this.  It will run again in the United States on December 27.

If you are student of history, or of film, this is a must see.

New Zealander Peter Jackson, famous for his Lord of the Ring films (which I have not seen) was asked by the British Imperial War Museum to take their original movie footage and do something, in terms of a film, with it.  Four years later, this is the spectacular result.

Jackson and his crew took over 100 hours of original IWM film footage, restored it, colorized much of it and then selected six hours of that, and then a little less than two, to produce this movie length tribute to the British fighting man of World War One.  Experts in reading lips were hired to determine what soldiers were saying in the film footage where they can be seen speaking and then matched with actors from appropriate regions of the UK to produce film that sounds like original talking film footage.  Background noises for the sounds of war were added as well (the artillery shocked me in the film as its one of the very, very few instances of artillery sounding actually correct, both in the firing and in the impact. . . it turns out that new recordings of the New Zealand Army's artillery were taken for that effort).

For the voice over, or narration, as to what is being depicted, Jackson relied up on the BBC's series of interviews of British veterans of World War One that were done in the 1960s and 1970s.  These were recently run as a BBC podcast as well, so some individuals may be familiar with this set.  Using it for the film produced an excellent first person result.

There's nothing really like this to compare it to.  It was a huge effort and that produced a very worthwhile result.  Highly recommended.

As an aside, the title comes from Laurence Binyon's 1914 poem, For the Fallen.

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 condemn. 

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.

Monument to Charles Peguy, Villaroy, Île-de-France, France.

We've already mentioned Charles Peguy in a prior post on Le Grande Tombe de Villaroy.  Here's a nearby monument to Peguy himself.

Peguy is a celebrated French poet who, as already noted, lost his life in the battle noted.  He's an interesting character having gone from being an atheist to deeply believing, but quixotically non observant Catholic.  This monument is in his honor.