100th 11.11.11

1918 … at “the eleventh hour on the 11th day of the 11th month,” an eerie stillness fell across the battlefields of Europe.

Armistice Day, officially recognized by President Wilson in 1919, is still observed throughout the world with many stopping for a moment of silence at the 11th hour of this day to honor those who brought about the end of the “Great War.”

In 1954, after the return of veterans from both World War II and the Korean War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill rededicating Nov. 11 as Veterans Day and encouraged Americans to commit themselves to the cause of peace and to honor America’s veterans for their courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice.

Amistice Commemoration, National WWI Museum

Movie Review: Testament of Youth (4 stars)

Testament of Youth

Released: January 2015

Watched Netflix BluRay: February 2016

Read Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain: January/February 2015

Rating4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:  In 1914, Vera Brittain overcomes the restraints on women of the time to become a student at Somerville College, Oxford. When World War I breaks out, her brother Edward, her fiancé Roland Leighton, and their friends Victor and Geoffrey, are sent to serve at the front lines. Brittain follows their sacrifice, leaving college to join the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse tending the wounded and dying (both British and German) in London, Malta and France.

My Thoughts:

I watched this with my husband on Sunday afternoon, Valentine’s Day.  A less bleak day than Saturday the 13th (overcast and never above 25 degrees).  Today is bright and sunny and in the 50s.  Almost spring like.  I’m beginning to think  I should have watched Testament of Youth yesterday instead of the Water DivinerContinue reading “Movie Review: Testament of Youth (4 stars)”

Movie Review: The Water Diviner (4.5 stars)

The Water Diviner

Released: December 2014 (Australia) and April 2015 (America)

Watched Netflix BluRay: February 2016

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Four years after the Battle of Gallipoli, Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) travels to Turkey to find his three sons, who never returned home from the war. When he arrives in Istanbul, he meets others who have also suffered losses: hotelier Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) and her son, Orhan, who befriends Connor; and Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan), a Turkish officer who fought against Connor’s sons and now may be their father’s only hope in finding closure.

My thoughts:

My husband and I watched this on Saturday afternoon, Valentine’s Day weekend.  I did not expect there to be a touching romance, but was pleasantly surprised to find one midst all the death Joshua persevered through in his search for his sons

Continue reading “Movie Review: The Water Diviner (4.5 stars)”

How The Sinking Of The Lusitania Heralded An Entirely New Kind Of War

http://io9.com/how-the-sinking-of-the-lusitania-heralded-an-entirely-n-1702800197

A less gentlemanly kind of war.  Interesting short history on this 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Book Review: Testament of Youth by Brittain (4 stars)

Testament of Youth

by Vera Brittain

4 out of 5 stars

Read in January/February 2015

Synopsis (via GoodReads):

In 1914, just as war was declared, 20 year-old Vera Brittain was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life—and that of her whole generation—had been irrevocably changed in a way that no one could have imagined in the tranquil pre-war era. Testament of Youth is Brittain’s account of how she lost the man she loved, nursed the wounded, survived those agonizing years, and emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time. It still retains the power to shock, move, and enthrall readers today.

My Thoughts:

I heard about this book during the inaugural discussion of The Things They Carried by O’Brien last fall.  The professor leading the discussion listed it as one of the better memoirs written post-conflict (didn’t matter what conflict).  Continue reading “Book Review: Testament of Youth by Brittain (4 stars)”

Trench Warfare in World War I Was a Smarter Strategy Than You Realize

http://io9.com/trench-warfare-in-world-war-i-was-a-smarter-strategy-th-1637657733

And this article ties in nicely with my Great War Great Read reading project.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Book Review: The Guns of August by Tuchman (4 Stars)

The Guns of August

by Barbara W. Tuchman

Read by John Lee

Winner of the Pulitzer Price for General Nonfiction 1963

4 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Barbara, I now know more about the first month of World War I than all my previous half-century of accumulated, absorbed knowledge. Not only do I know more, but I understand the how. How Europe ended up in a terrible stalemate and war of attrition that lasted four more years. The why will have to wait until I can read her other history The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914.

On August 23rd, I attended a discussion of The Guns of August sponsored by the Kansas City Public Library, the Kansas City Star‘s FYI Book Club and hosted at the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial. There were many attendees from all over the Kansas City metro area and we attempted to stay focused on Tuchman’s novel, not straying to far before or after. A great hour of discussion on an excellently researched and composed history of the outbreak of the Great War. Continue reading “Book Review: The Guns of August by Tuchman (4 Stars)”

Update from the Eastern Front

My grandmother, Doris, often wished she could reconnect with her mother’s relatives in Europe in her latter years.  But the ravages of two World Wars followed by the dropping of the Iron Curtain across most of eastern Europe made genealogical research nigh impossible.

I was reminded of this frustration this morning while I listened to The Guns of August on my commute to work. I’m reading this Pulitzer winning non-fiction book as part of the Kansas City Public Library and the National Word War I Museum‘s Great War | Great Read program to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I.

http://www.kclibrary.org/greatwar

I’d reached the fifteenth chapter, which began a shift of focus from the Western Front in August 1914 to the Eastern Front with the appropriate title ‘The Cossacks are Coming!’  About halfway through my commute, I recognized the name of my great-grandmother’s home town, formerly known as Stallupönen, but since reclaimed and renamed multiple times over the last century.
Continue reading “Update from the Eastern Front”

Article: World looks much like it did in 1914, on the brink of World War I

World looks much like it did in 1914, on the brink of World War I

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/27/4440774/obligation-and-opportunity-centennial.html

I seem to be drawn to world history a century ago lately.   First Downton Abbey, now Rin-Rin-Tin. Probably time I revisited the museum under the Liberty Memorial. I have no excuse not to since I drive passed it twice on weekdays.

Movie Review: War Horse (2011)

War Horse (2011)

4 out of 5 stars

I found this film difficult to watch.   Spielberg is a master at tugging my heart to places it fears to tread.  And this horse went to places of heart-stopping beauty and through circumstances of heart-rending destruction.

Two aspects of this film, excluding the beautiful equines, that hit a home run (for me at least) were the cinematography and the music.  I expect that from the likes of John Williams for the latter.   I will pay attention to cinematographer film credits in the future to be sure I watch anything by Janusz Kamiński.  He worked previously with Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List.  Of course, it’s hard to go wrong with landscapes found in Dartmoor, Devon.  And a nice ‘book end’ touch to the film included almost identical scenes, one of dawn over Dartmoor (and the birth of Joey) and the other at dusk.

I knew the plight of men who went to battle during the Great War.  I am blessed to live within thirty miles of the National World War I Museum housed under the Liberty Memorial.  I highly recommend you visit the museum if you ever find yourself in Kansas City, Missouri with a day or so to spare.

I did not realize the extent of equine casualties during WWI.  According to the Wikipedia article on War Horse, the section relating to the research done by the author of the children’s novel of the same name:

Morpurgo researched the subject further and learned that a million horses died on the British side; he extrapolated an overall figure of 10 million horse deaths on all sides. Of the million horses that were sent abroad from the UK, only 62,000 returned, the rest dying in the war or slaughtered in France for meat. The Great War had a massive and indelible impact on the male population of the UK: 886,000 men died, one in eight of those who went to war, and 2% of the entire country’s population.

Background, War Horse, Wikipedia

Similar to Black Beauty in time period and focus, the true star of this film was Joey, the English thoroughbred.  “During filming, fourteen different horses were used as the main horse character Joey, eight of them portraying him as an adult animal, four as a colt and two as foals; four horses played the other main equine character, Topthorn. Up to 280 horses were used in a single scene. … Working with horses on this scale was a new experience for Spielberg, who commented: ‘The horses were an extraordinary experience for me, because several members of my family ride. I was really amazed at how expressive horses are and how much they can show what they’re feeling.'” (War Horse Wikipedia article).

And the most surprising tidbit I picked up from that article: “According to Spielberg, the only digital effects in the film are three shots lasting three seconds, which were undertaken to ensure the safety of the horse involved: ‘That’s the thing I’m most proud of. Everything you see on screen really happened.’ … Representatives of the American Humane Society were on set at all times to ensure the health and safety of all animals involved, and the Society awarded the film an ‘outstanding’ rating for the care that was taken of all the animals during the production. An animatronic horse was used for some parts of the scenes where Joey is trapped in barbed wire; the wire was rubber prop wire.”

Like Schindler’s List and The Passion of the Christ, I’m glad I watched this film, but I’m not sure I could watch any of them a second time.  No, it doesn’t rise to the human tragedy and triumph of the two I mentioned, but War Horse reverberates on a similar harmonic.