work lately...worries...weddings...

we've been working on a few shows for the history channel lately, to do with ww1, and mostly about the major battles where canadians took part even if the show isn't specifically about canadian soldiers. the somme. ypres. passchendaele. it's been more interesting than normal actually.
the one about the somme was a bit surprising even. it turns out that the film footage of the somme - which is actually the only footage i can recall of ww1 - is mostly faked. the british generals expected a great swift victory. they got an ugly long slaughter. the filmmaker who was supposed to capture the victory got instead what actually happened. then some fake footage was combined with cuts from his footage to show a victory. one scene in particular stands out. i'm sure a lot of people would recognize it as the one they saw in history class, and in text books. allied troops are going over the top of a trench and one man is shot just as he sticks his head up and falls back down but everyone else makes it out of the trench anyway. i don't know if my description can call it up in memory, but it's such a familiar sequence that i'm sure it would be recognized.
turns out that was fake. propaghanda. it's not a trench. the men don't have any gas masks or any other equipment at all with them. the "officer" is actually only carrying a cane.
i can remember pictures of this sequence in history text books.
so...early propaghanda...
actually the show was/is pretty cool. they get all csi with the film, trying to figure out which parts of it are real. at the same time, 2 brothers from newfoundland, armed forces guys themselves, are retracing the footsteps of two uncles who fought at the somme. it works as a good counterpoint, with the forensics and specialists working on the film and the big picture history of ww1 and the brothers dealing with the personal and family histories, and even retracing routes and events in actual clothing and equipment of the period.
the specialists they call in are pretty awesome. they take stills of the footage to identify actual places where they were filmed, and the soldiers in them. they use facial analysts to compare images, and a lip reader to figure out what they might be saying.
the brothers are also pretty interesting. they're able to make this giant, unfathomable event real with their family histories, and heirlooms. one brother sews his uncle's hat badge onto the uniform he's wearing. they also have a story about the uncle who survived, despite getting shot in the leg and losing the leg.
"one time i was left alone wit' uncle linus, an' me ma tol' me never to ask him about his leg. so as soon as she left the room i says to him 'uncle linus, what happened to your leg?' an' he lets out this great cackle an' he squints at me an' he says [in a popeye kinda voice]'a tank run over it'..."
i dunno. it's a silly little story but so real and so human...
the more they talked about newfoundlanders in ww1 though, ...it made me pretty curious about how ww1 history might be really different in newfoundland than what i learned. there was one regiment that started the day with 750 men and only had 68 at role call the next morning. and overall newfoundland lost more men than any other country, in proportion to how many enlisted. (newfoundland wasn't part of canada then.) is there anymore resonance, or maybe presence in the classroom or maybe just greater weight to the teaching?
i dunno. just a thought.
interesting show anyway.