It feels odd to say, but it's a credit to a titan of cinema like Peter Jackson to reflect that, as one watches, it's very easy to forget that he was involved in this at all. His approach to this documentary was to provide an immersive experience for the viewer, to let survivors' words ring loud and clear and let the footage speak for itself, and this intent was achieved perfectly. Hearing only voices, and declining the standard format of interviewees sitting in front of the camera, keeps us locked into what we see and hear. The incredible, flawless restoration of video from the 1910s, and its colorization, is so pristine that one easily forgets that that these are very real images, from a very real war, and not fabrications of film production. Such a sense is very emphatically bolstered by the addition of sound effects and voice work, amplifying the verisimilitude of the spellbinding experience until one is completely swept up in the feature. 'They shall not grow old' may be "only" a documentary, but it accomplishes a level of deep absorption and investment for the audience that far, far exceeds what the vast majority of conventional motion pictures can claim. This is simply outstanding.
It's a profound understatement to say that this was an ambitious project, though clearly Jackson had a measure of personal motivation to propel him. The breadth of the movie is impressive, even as several years of conflict are condensed into 100 minutes. Drawing together still photos, illustrations, untreated black and white footage, exquisitely restored and colorized footage, and the indicated survivors' tales and added sound, we're provided a glimpse of "the war to end all wars" from its very beginning to its very end. The initial excitement at a fresh new lark, the exuberance of literal children to sign up for military service, the rigors and repetition of training - through to the excruciating, filthy, bloody, deadly, reeking hell of battle and bombardment, the skepticism shared with supposed enemies of what it's all for, and the far less revelatory return home. Stills, footage, and recollectoins of soldiers just going about life in the trenches, otherwise on the frontlines, or on brief leave are mind-blowing in their juxtaposition with unfiltered and real imagery, and detailed descriptions, of blood, gore, death, destruction, and explosions far more terribly breath-taking than what the best special effects of Hollywood can dream up. And all the while we're met with the odd duality of struggling to meaningfully comprehend that all this was real, while also losing sight of the fact that this is a cinematic presentation helmed by the same man who gave us both 'The lord of the rings' and 'Meet the Feebles.'
Jackson has done much in his career for which he is to be rightly celebrated, and still it's quite possible that this is his greatest success to date. The most stirring fiction has a power that is easily matched, with far less labor, by the stark exhibition of one of the most awful events in (relatively) recent history, and the full scope of the human experience that was part and parcel of it. The effort here to augment the archived materials with audio to enrich the production could have easily come off as gauche and inauthentic, and there are perhaps other instances in film and TV where this has been the case - yet Jackson and his collaborators were so painstaking in the endeavor that the result is unfailingly, inescapably compelling. Such is the excellence of this picture that I don't think it's unreasonable to think even those who normally have difficulty abiding documentaries would find this far easier to get on board with. After all, that was rather the goal in the first place, to dispense with the customs of the genre, and the subsequent impact that 'They shall not grow old' has is momentous. To be frank, this is pretty much a must-see for one and all. Whatever one's walk of life: the very personal stories told here, the remembrance of so horrible a moment in history, and the implied warning of repeating it are essential, demanding viewership. However one needs to go about watching this, do it.
It's a profound understatement to say that this was an ambitious project, though clearly Jackson had a measure of personal motivation to propel him. The breadth of the movie is impressive, even as several years of conflict are condensed into 100 minutes. Drawing together still photos, illustrations, untreated black and white footage, exquisitely restored and colorized footage, and the indicated survivors' tales and added sound, we're provided a glimpse of "the war to end all wars" from its very beginning to its very end. The initial excitement at a fresh new lark, the exuberance of literal children to sign up for military service, the rigors and repetition of training - through to the excruciating, filthy, bloody, deadly, reeking hell of battle and bombardment, the skepticism shared with supposed enemies of what it's all for, and the far less revelatory return home. Stills, footage, and recollectoins of soldiers just going about life in the trenches, otherwise on the frontlines, or on brief leave are mind-blowing in their juxtaposition with unfiltered and real imagery, and detailed descriptions, of blood, gore, death, destruction, and explosions far more terribly breath-taking than what the best special effects of Hollywood can dream up. And all the while we're met with the odd duality of struggling to meaningfully comprehend that all this was real, while also losing sight of the fact that this is a cinematic presentation helmed by the same man who gave us both 'The lord of the rings' and 'Meet the Feebles.'
Jackson has done much in his career for which he is to be rightly celebrated, and still it's quite possible that this is his greatest success to date. The most stirring fiction has a power that is easily matched, with far less labor, by the stark exhibition of one of the most awful events in (relatively) recent history, and the full scope of the human experience that was part and parcel of it. The effort here to augment the archived materials with audio to enrich the production could have easily come off as gauche and inauthentic, and there are perhaps other instances in film and TV where this has been the case - yet Jackson and his collaborators were so painstaking in the endeavor that the result is unfailingly, inescapably compelling. Such is the excellence of this picture that I don't think it's unreasonable to think even those who normally have difficulty abiding documentaries would find this far easier to get on board with. After all, that was rather the goal in the first place, to dispense with the customs of the genre, and the subsequent impact that 'They shall not grow old' has is momentous. To be frank, this is pretty much a must-see for one and all. Whatever one's walk of life: the very personal stories told here, the remembrance of so horrible a moment in history, and the implied warning of repeating it are essential, demanding viewership. However one needs to go about watching this, do it.