A Great War Projectile and Stokes Mortar near Hawthorn Ridge, Auchonvillers.
Reflecting Upon War Horse
The plow cuts its way into the ground, and turns the earth over to one side heaping the rich soil atop the furrow’s parapet. As Albert urges Joey through this field of stone, once again I turn myself towards the ploughed fields of France and Flanders, and to the harvest. Albert will soon be at the Front to search for his Joey; not unlike so many others who travel today to these places of conflict searching for their Joey, Albert, and Tommy.
As I watch the ground and see the furrow in War Horse, I think back to the trenches I have seen in these times of peace. Some restored, others created and yet in the wood of the countryside original trenches can still be seen. Unlike the farmer’s furrows, these trenches are angled so that blast cannot follow along a straight line. Like the old streets of Mdina where an arrow cannot fly forever straight as its flight is broken by walls and angles.
The farmers of France and Flanders work each season on these fields of iron. It is where they grow the crops that feed themselves and the people. They take their machines out onto these fields that have been carved with their fair share of furrows and trenches. Each field a farm and a battlefield, providing its bounty in the crops that have grown and claiming its share of tragedy in the blood of young men sown into the soil.
When visiting these fields, which remain dangerous, the number of shells, shrapnel, shrapnel balls, wire and bits of brass that lie in one’s path are spread across the ground like bits of lost production. What was once whole is shattered into pieces, but on occasion there is a live round, a grenade, a fuse left to torment us with the screams of the Great War. We pause and reflect, listening to our guide tell us what happened on this spot. We look warily at this rusted ordnance of the past (the iron harvest) carved to the surface by a plough of today and just like Joey, “Move on!” to the next furrow, the next trench, and the next story.
Tags: Albert, Auchonvillers, France and Flanders, Great War, Hawthorn Ridge, Iron harvest, Joey, War Horse
This entry was posted by pferguson
on Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Our Thoughts.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
About The Author
Paul has worked with the Paradigm Motion Picture Company since 2009 as producer, historian and research specialist. Paul first met Casey and Ian WIlliams of Paradigm in April 2007 at Ieper (Ypres), Belgium when ceremonies were being held for the re-dedication of the Vimy Memorial, France.
Paul's sensitivity to film was developed at an early age seeing his first films at RCAF Zweibrucken, Germany and Sardinia. Paul returned to Canada in 1967 and was captivated by David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai". Over time Paul became increasingly interested in storytelling, content development, character, direction, cinematography, narration and soundtracks.
At the University of Victoria, Paul studied and compared Japanese and Australian film and became interested in Australian film maker Peter Weir and his film "Gallipoli" (1981). Paul was inspired when he learned Weir visited the beaches, ridges and ravines of the peninsula. "Gallipoli", the film, led Paul on many journeys to sites of conflict in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Malta, Hawaii, Gallipoli, North Macedonia and Salonika.
When Paul first watched documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, "The Civil War", Paul understood how his own experience and insight could be effective and perhaps influential in film-making. Combining his knowledge of Museums and Archives, exhibitions and idea strategies with his film interests was a natural progression.
Paul thinks like a film-maker. His passion for history and storytelling brings to Paradigm an eye (and ear) to the keen and sensitive interests of; content development, the understanding of successful and relational use of collections, imagery and voice. Like Paul's favorite actor, Peter O'Toole, Paul believes in the adage “To deepen not broaden.”
While on this path Paul always remembers his grandmother whose father did not return from the Great War and how his loss shaped her life and how her experience continues to guide him.
Comments