BY RAUL HERNANDEZ
This is one of the best documentaries I have ever watch.
It’s a blockbuster in storytelling and cinematography that is more about humanity than a war that claimed about 20 million lives.
The British documentary at movie theaters is a unique and powerful account of people who fought in World War I.
“Hell in the trenches: ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ documentary uses actual British combat footage to tell the grisly tale of men fighting in WWI.
Two decades ago, I wrote a poem I tilted “Verdun” about the largest and longest battle of WWI between German and French armies. There were 976,000 casualties — 337,231 French and 337,000 German casualties.
The poem was written after I saw a photo of a dead soldier hanging on top of barb wire.
I have always loved reading about WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the Civil War, not so much the battles but about the humanity that fought in those wars.
I will never forget some of the faces splashed on “They Shall Not Grow Old,” which is directed by Peter Jackson. The haunting looks of kids who eagerly went to defend their country and the aftermath of what happened when they returned home from the war.
The documentary puts viewers on the Western Front trenches. It is gruesome, funny, very sad and showed breathtaking heroism and powerful portraits of courage. Most surprising is the way the British soldiers treated the Germans who had killed many of their friends and fellow-soldiers on the battlefield.
After the documentary, Director Jackson explains how the black-and-white film was brought to life through painstaking restoration and successful salvage of old film to a remarkable cinema experience.
I never sobbed or became emotional watching movies.
This is one of the handfuls of documentaries that chocked me up. As the camera panned across the faces of tough young men, I felt sorry for these lives who left their homes and families to defend their country.
Who were loved and died hundreds of miles from home.
The optimism while living in hellish conditions, the incredible suffering and the looks, those look of terror, on exhausted faces as they are about to go over the trenches and into waiting German machineguns are unforgettable.
Trump vs. NYT
Excellent article on the interview with Trump by the New York Times on Thursday.
During the interview, Trump scoffed at the notion that he was making money from the presidency, calling the job a “loser” financially.
“I lost massive amounts of money doing this job,” he said. “This is not the money. This is one of the great losers of all time. You know, fortunately, I don’t need money. This is one of the great losers of all time. But they’ll say that somebody from some country stayed at a hotel. And I’ll say, ‘Yeah.’ But I lose, I mean, the numbers are incredible.”
If it had not been for hard and meticulous investigative journalism of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and news outlets, the clutter inside Trump’s deranged mind and his nefarious deeds would have never been brought to light.
Trump put a cash -register mindset and balance sheet to gauge the prestige position of having the honor to be the leader of the free world and commander-in-chief of the United States.
Yet, Trump says, “I love this job.”
That’s impossible to believe because he has made a mockery of the presidency with his buffoonish antics, vulgarity, bigotry, embracing America’s enemies, and an insatiable appetite for cameras and constant publicity.
And, of course, an endless quest to try to find places to put his “Trump” signage to make a buck even if it means hurling accolades, praises and giving credence to a Russian thug gangster and turning his back on the United States, its people, and institutions.
When the Trumps leave the White House, someone please count the silverware.