Peter Jackson’s Word War I historical documentary They Shall Not Grow Old brings old war footage back to life.
Advances in digital technology have allowed the LOTR director to show the frontline in 3D color.
During the four years it took to make the film, Jackson also used forensic-lip readers to help him understand what soldiers in the old silent footage were saying and then actors were used that to give them a voice.
To help tell the story, veteran’s recorded testimonies about their wartime experiences are used throughout the film.
They Shall Not Grow Old was commissioned by the BBC and the British Imperial War Museum for the November 2018 centenary of the end of World War I. Lest we forget.
Read review samples below. The film’s trailer follows.
JUDGEMENT
“When Jackson’s footage expands and turns to color, it’s so bright. The greenery in the background of most of the images practically sing, the uniforms are variantly colored and the sky is luminescent, sometimes even blue. It’s a simple thing but if it’s not the first film to show World War I taking place under heavenly blue skies it certainly feels like it is. The odd clarity is a horrible but absolutely necessary gift from Jackson and Walsh to these men. Their faces are so alive when they smile, the sky practically smiles at them from above, and still they marched to their death.” Scout Tafoya, rogerebert.com
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“There’s no talk of specific battles or the larger picture, simply a visceral exploration of everything the Tommies of Britain saw, felt, heard, smelled, tasted. We learn about the plague of rats who fattened themselves on corpses, see the gangrenous feet that had to be sawed off, hear about the all-pervading, sickly sweet smell of animal and human corpses, the taste of which stuck to the food the soldiers ate. The mud was so thick and so sticky that a wounded man could simply be swallowed up by it. When attacked by poison gas, some men sought relief by applying handkerchiefs soaked in their own urine to their faces.” Kyle Smith, National Review
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“Part of the answer lies in the intensity of the personal relations that this hardship generated. Australians traditionally have called this mateship but in the British voices of this documentary, we hear of the great ‘kindness’ manifest in the trenches: the capacity to share whatever soldiers might have received from the home front, and the ability to mitigate suffering through compassion. The message from this memorable documentary, then, is one of profound contradictions: hardship, loss, and terrible suffering; yet at the same time, survival, resilience, pride, and a sense of shared humanity.” Joan Beaumont, The Interpreter
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“Paired with interviews with surviving British soldiers recorded in the 1960s and 1970s, the end result goes far beyond the simple colorization of moldering battlefield documentation. It restores the humanity of the combatants, both the British and, surprisingly, the German. Ultimately, it’s a you-are-there time capsule of enormous emotional and historical importance.” Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
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“The battle scenes emerge with a stirring urgency, along with the grim realities of life in the lice-and-rat-infested trenches. Still, it’s the faces of the British soldiers — some as young as 14 — that burn into your memory. Rendered with a close-up proximity that captures the lively humor and camaraderie of this band of brothers, these faces also reveal the bone-weary fatigue that comes with living in daily proximity to death. One interlude, in which the soldiers peacefully interact with the German enemy during a cease-fire, vehemently indicts the moral vacuum of war.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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“And, beyond the beginning and end, there’s no real sense of how far through the war we are and how long the voices speaking have been involved, to add a sense of context. But these are minor quibbles — the film is a triumph, both technically and emotionally. We may still not know exactly what it was like to fight in World WarI (and hopefully we never will), but They Shall Not Grow Old gets us closer than ever before, and shows us how much these men sacrificed. One hundred years on, it’s a lesson well worth remembering.” Jonathan Pile, empireonline.com