Soldiers' Stories (2014) Online
100 years ago the greatest battle the earth has ever seen began in the Somme region of France. More British and Canadian soldiers would die in this one single battle than in all of World War II, yet it is a relatively unknown event today. Soldiers' Stories brings a 'grunt eye view' of battle to life using original, never before seen 3D stereoscopic images from the time. Painstakingly remastered for 15/70 mm film format these powerful and haunting images are brought to the screen for the first time ever. The Soldiers' Story is a universal and timeless story. In the film the realities of war are retold by modern combat veterans who relay their own stories of today in order to speak for the veterans of the past.
| Credited cast: | |||
 | Mickey Rooney | - | Narrator (voice) |
 | Matthew Young | - | Historical Narrator |
Mickey Rooney, who narrates Soldiers' Stories, was chosen because he was a soldier in WWII where he was awarded the Silver Star for his efforts during the Battle of the Bulge.
Soldiers' Stories is the largest most complicated documentary as of its release in Cinema history with a 72MP master representing two eye views of 6000 by 6000 pixels square.
Soldiers' Stories is the oldest 3D theatrical film using 100 year old, original 3D images.
99% of audiences are unaware that 3D existed in WWI. 3D was created in 1840's.
Soldiers' Stories was the first film ever to use current soldiers experiences to narrate the voices of those of 100 years ago who passed away - the idea being that the act of being a soldier is timeless. This was not the first choice, the producers originally tried using actors but it just wasn't the same.
Veterans are very moved by the film, with more than half of viewers typically experiencing an extreme emotional response to the film.
Soldiers' Stories is narrated by present day veterans. In early screenings of the film theater owners complained that the "actors" were "too young" and should be replaced without realizing that there were not actors and that the stories were real stories from the people who experienced them. This is part of the age bias that audiences have as they are so used to hearing older soldiers narrate experiences of the distant past rather than understanding that battles are fought by 14 to 25 year olds.
The film was described as "Too honest for American Museums" by a director of a major American Museum.
The audio mix was the result of months of audio reconstruction of all the weapons present on July 1, 1916. The machine gun sound had to be lifted from YouYube samples and digitally remastered as no suitable clip was available in any sound library. Some veterans have said that the battle sound was so realistic they had to leave the theater.
The Pablo Rio editor crashed over 100 times while making the film as it was the largest file the machine had ever ingested at the time of the post production in 2014.
Both Soldiers' Stories producers have military ties. Nick Reed was a Royal Navy pilot, and Jonathan Kitzen was in ROTC.
The film screened on July 28th 2014, 100 years to the day of the start of WWI.
The film is the only theatrically released WWI film for the 100th anniversary of WWI.