Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson is promising the greatest World War I show on earth with his Great War Exhibition, which opened on ANZAC Day 25 April. Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films, alongside Sir Richard Taylor's Weta Workshop, have been the driving creative forces behind the multimillion-dollar Government-backed project The Great War Exhibition, which commemorates the crucial role New Zealand played in the war. I visited this afternoon and what a treat it turned out to be. Click on the images to enlarge
As visitor numbers are very high, at present the only option for seeing the exhibition is by guided tour in groups of 18-20. The tour takes about 20 minutes and there is not much lingering permitted, but photography is OK. Unfortunately the exhibition is dimly lit and the camera struggled with shutter speeds as slow as 1/10 of a second, so apologies up front for some of the quality.
The show will stay open for the duration of the centenary, closing after Armistice Day in 2018 so I expect after the initial rush there will be plenty of opportunity for a longer visit. It is designed to be a personal journey for individual visitors and is being released in three parts like a movie trilogy.
The first instalment, which opened last Saturday, ushers visitors through portals through each year of the war and begins in a peaceful Belgian village.
When war broke out in 1914, tens of thousands of Kiwi troops arrived in Europe buoyed by a wave of colonial idealism thinking they would be "home before Christmas". But brutal reality soon set in. The Great War took 18,166 New Zealand lives at a time when the young country's population numbered just over 1m.
As you walk through the exhibition you are shown the experiences of conscription and shipping out for war, before being emersed in recreations of battle scenes, including life-sizes tanks and weapons.
The sounds of men merrily marching off to war are present at the start but are soon replaced by the rolling thunder of tanks, gunfire and shelling.
Many of the artillery pieces and uniforms sprinkled throughout the exhibition are from Jackson's personal collection, while other pieces were donated from war museums in France and Belgium.
Every inch of the exhibition is in colour, as Jackson placed a ban on black and white. "Most people have the idea of World War I being a black and white war, because of the photography of the time," he said. "But the soldiers didn't experience a black and white war ... I just wanted people to be able to see war in colour, as the soldiers saw it."
A fascinating cutaway of a border fortress which was overrun by the Germans
Lots of weapons were on display, and uniforms
And then I looked up . . .
This reproduction Maurice Farman MF11 is in the markings of Lts Fernand Jacquet and Louis Robin of the Belgian 1ere Escadrille. It was built by The Vintage Aviator Ltd and I was told it has an original engine. The undersurfaces have been heavily 'weathered' with mud.
On to 1915 and trench warfare
An ultra-realistic 1:1 scale diorama
This newspaper headline was enlarged to cover a wall
Large scale trench diorama in something close to 1/72 I think
A massive diorama in 1:1 scale with a British tank overrunning a trench with a mine thrower crew underneath
Under the tank
On to 1917
Super realistic 1:1 scale Lewis gunner
Small scale trench diorama
The show features painstakingly colourised black and white photos
1:1 scale German storm troopers
The great War is not glorified
The exhibition ends with a sombre poppy-laden reflection on the war's unfathomable death toll
Then it is time to jump on a ship to get home to the loved ones
Jackson's great-uncle died in World War I, and his grandfather met his grandmother while recovering from bullet wounds suffered on the front.
About $10m has been spent on the project to date, with $7m coming from Government, $2m from Wellington City Council and most of the remainder from ANZ Bank (my employer). I have only covered a small part with these photographs. Will have to go back, its brilliant!
Another reason reason to visit Wellington before creeping old age sets in.
Cheers
James
