Peter Jackson's World War One visual/verbal 3D amazement, THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD opens in South Florida -- and nationwide

I've never seen anything quite like new film this over my entire 77-year movie-going life. (TrustMovies saw his first film, or so he was told, before the age of one year; by the time he was 2-1/2, he had run away from home in order to go to the "picture show.") What filmmaker Peter Jackson has accomplished in THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD -- he dedicates his film to his New Zealand grandfather who fought in WWI -- is so truly surprising and unexpected (even if, oddly enough, you have already reads lots about the film itself) that it will leave you amazed and shaken. This is hands down the closest thing to being in war itself that the movie experience has given me.

Most filmgoers best know Jackson (shown, left) via his Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, though early fans will remember his bizarre and oh-so-tasteful Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Dead Alive (my favorite of his -- besides this film -- still remains Heavenly Creatures).

Nothing he has done, however, could prepare you for this new documentary, in which archival photos and film shot during "The Great War" have been not simply restored but colorized, wide-screened and given the three-dimension effect, rendering them literally something heretofore unseen.

If this sounds like some mere stunt, the effect of actually viewing it on screen proves something else entirely. (We saw it in 3D, but it is also being shown in standard format.) This, combined with the film's narration -- which is nothing more or less than the actual recorded-during-interviews voices of the men who served in the war talking about the experience itself -- join forces to make what we see and hear seem like utter and unalloyed reality.

Very wisely and cleverly, Jackson begins with old, black-and-white small-screen footage, which continues for quite some time, as he first shows (and has the soldiers tell) of how the war began for England, along with all the rah-rah recruiting (often of boys as young as fourteen or fifteen), the training of the troops, and then the shipping of them all off to the war itself.

When, at last, one of those black-and-white photos suddenly changes to color, the effect is so startling, amazing and memorable that, for me, it outdoes any and every "special effect" I've had to sit through in our dismal array of current superhero schlock. Further, Jackson coordinates the visuals with the soldiers' narration extremely well.

Only once during the entire movie did I find the visuals amiss, due mostly to the overly repetitive use of one particular photo, of soldiers supposedly waiting for the battle to begin. Otherwise, the well-chosen combos of visual and narrative keeps us locked in, producing an immediacy that works like a charm. A deadly charm.

As amazing as the documentary is, They Shall Not Grow Old is not an easy watch. In fact, it is often grueling. But what else might we expect from a film that place us so squarely in the middle of wartime?  While the overt carnage is less than we often get from our usual slasher movie, the sense of fear, of odd isolation, of impending doom is so strong that (the acute and specific sounds effects are an enormous help here) that I found myself holding my breath and literally jumping slightly in my seat at numerous times throughout.

Particularly engulfing and horrendous was the trench warfare (and trench living) to which the soldiers were subjected. Their utter lack of cleanliness -- and their inability to do anything about this -- along with their decaying teeth and non-healing wounds will stagger you. At 99 minutes, the movie does not seem overlong, but by its end, as the war itself ceases, you will be more than ready to cry "enough!"

This is a fine and fitting way to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I. Though the press audience with whom I watched the screening were made up mostly of the elderly or near so, I would hope that a few intrepid young people will take a chance on this one-of-a-kind movie.

Though it seems that most of our youthful population can barely understand or be aware of our current and seemingly endless middle eastern war(s), let alone differentiate between our War for Independence, WWI, WWII, or our unnecessary and destructive wars in Korea and Vietnam, one can only hope that some few of these will want to learn something new, while having the kind of movie experience they will not have encountered anywhere else.

From Warner Brothers Pictures, They Shall Not Grow Old, after opening in special screenings last December, will now hit theaters nationwide this Friday, February 1. Click here to find those nearest you.

The Philippines Oscar submission: Jerrold Tarog's fact-and-fantasy epic HENERAL LUNA

If you didn't already realize it from the opening screen crawl of background and history (cluing us in to the fact that that we're about to see greatly fictionalized story-telling), when one character, in trying to describe the elusive personality of our titular HENERAL LUNA (General Luna, to you non-Spanish or Tagalog speakers), asks, "Have you ever tried to catch the wind?", I think you'll know that you're deep in the land of hagiography. And why not? The film's director, Jerrold Tarog (shown below), himself has described his work as an act of cinematic nation-building,

So, sit back, put your sense of actual history to sleep, and enjoy the old-fashioned, colorful storytelling and performances. If you're Filipino, the film will probably resonate on some level; if not, it will seem awfully by-the-book. It is weakest in providing the kind of specific details of character and dialog that could bring the film to some kind of vivid life. Instead we get the most typical cliches that show us the characters as heroic, cowardly, villainous, loving, waffling, and so on, down the line.

All this certainly makes its point (and also makes the movie completely understandable for school-children and, in fact, has seen major success by filling auditoriums in the nation's schools.). As the most successful independent movie in Filipino history, it also has made its mark as a huge box-office bonanza.

As the movie begins, our Heneral (John Arcilla, above and below) is already in command and quite successful at what he does. The time is just prior to the 19th Century turning into the 20th, as Spain has lost its rule over the Philippines, as well as the Spanish American War and so has "sold" the country to the USA -- which is about to make one of its early misadventures in would-be colonization.

As one character explains it nicely and precisely, "Americans fought for their own liberty. They know we have a right to ours. That makes their aggression inexcusable." All of which is true. But it's funny how power and hypocrisy can so easily turn right into wrong. From the start, Luna has big trouble uniting the various Filipino powers into an integrated whole, what with a weak President and cowardly, lazy, power-hungry underlings (including other generals) all over the place.

The movie takes as its framwork an interview of the General by a young journalist (played by Arron Villaflor, above) who questions his subject concerning the famous man's life and work, and so hands us a fairly standard scenario, enlived now and then by battles and/or politics.

Along the way, we get a mild sex scene between Luna and his paramour (above), and a couple of others between the man and his mom (below). Otherwise it's mostly military stuff: more battles, a little strategy, some gore (we watch as a soldier gets half his head blown off), and one montage showing the predations of the America soldiers against the Filipino populace.

Since Filipinos (and any Americans with a sense of history) will know the outcome here, we  pretty much wait for the good General to get his. When he does, Tarog gifts us with one of the great unintentionally comic death scenes on film, meant, of course, to show us our hero's indomitable spirit. This would be pretty much a disaster for most movies, but since Heneral Luna ends with the following escape clause, we can grin and bear it:

"The characters in this film may resemble real people from the past, but ultimately are products of artistic license. Historical figures, facts -- and even rumors -- were reshaped to serve a consistent narrative theme." Well, yes, and you could make that same statement about Reality TV.

From Abramorama -- running just under two hours, and spoken in Filipino, Tagalog, English and Spanish with English subtitles as needed -- the film made its New York debut last Friday and opens today, November 6, in Los Angeles and elsewhere.