Jackson’s use of recorded interviews with vetetans alongside computer enhanced archival footage of the War forces the viewer to witness the horror faced by those men. Shrapnel, bullets, explosions, mud, maggots, and rats were a part of daily life.
It showed the War for what if was, a senselessv conflict wherein the working classes of Europe, who were only a few generations removed from serfdom and peasenty were marched into a meatgrinder day after day.
My Grandpa served with the American Expiditionary Force in the late stages of the War and he had no delusions of what it was about.
He referred to it as the ‘War of the Cousins’ since Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and King George of England were first cousins, George and Czar Nicholas of Russia were first cousins, and Wilhelm and Nicholas were third cousins. My Grandpa said wars are fought with the blood of the poor to pay for the interests of the rich.
Ultimately the film shows how the human spirit, when confronted with so much chaos, has the ability to respond with acceptance and resignation.
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