They Shall Not Grow Old

Compiled to be personal. Brilliant. Peter Jackson turned 100 hours of documentary film and over 600 hours of audio interviews, of those who served, into a very personal encounter with the First World War. The post credit 30 minute featurette, about the process of making the documentary, is not to be missed. I was startled by the packed afternoon showing (I heard the manager of the cineplex say that when he saw the ticket sales he had to move the film out of the events theatre and into the largest auditorium they had). This is a really fine production - emotional and educational. I give this a 10 (brilliant film making) out of 10. [Historical War Documentary]

Fantastic World War I documentary. The restored and colourized footage from the actual battlefields is absolutely mesmerizing. Highly recommended.

Everyone in the world should watch this film. It's absolutely incredible. The work that has gone into restoring the footage and putting together the sound effects and voices is absolutely remarkable. It's always fascinating to hear information from the people who were actually there fighting this horrific war. I think it speaks volumes that they all hate the glorification of war, and that when it was over, they didn't really care who won - They were ALL just glad it was over, on all sides. One of them stated that we must all make sure it will never happen again. These are the people who were there; these are the people we need to listen to. Never underestimate the devastation, the trauma, and the absolute hell that war is. This film should be played in schools every single year. Don't just stick a flag up on Facebook every November and say "Lest We Forget"... It means absolutely nothing! Actually remember what soldiers, medics, animals, and civilians really went through. Remember the true gore that war creates and all the people that suffer because of the stupidity of politics.

Superb. This was exceptional. Peter Jackson and his team painstakingly took 100 year old archive footage and somehow rendered it into HD. An absolute triumph. Very emotional to hear what the soldiers were going through. Should be compulsory viewing in schools or something. 9/10

I went into this mostly to see what results had Peter Jackson and his team achieved in restoring old footage. The visual aspect was what I was interested in, as I am not one for documentaries otherwise; but "They Shall Not Grow Old" is really something else.

The movie avoids to identify the soldiers that speak and narrate throughout the movie. It also makes no mention of specific dates nor places. It's a great idea, as it makes the whole story not about an individual or a certain battle but rather about what it was like being an infantryman in the British army on the western front; and it managed to convey that message brilliantly. From the exuberance of the young british eager to enlist when the war started to their first doubts after a few weeks of training; from the camaraderie and bonding that happened in the trenches to the horror of the charges against the machine guns.

The visuals really helped bring the whole experience into the 21st century. Sometimes watching old footage you feel disconnected, detached. It's in black and white, it's at a weird speed, it looks almost parodistic. Here instead, a lot of footage has been colorized and its speed adjusted. Sure it doesn't look perfect, you can see some interpolation and visual glitches, but this is not some big production in Hollywood. These were real men, firing real guns and losing their real lives.

The audio was also great. The way they managed to edit the various interviews of the soldiers was incredible; if you didn't know that they used 600 hours of dialogue, you'd think that a platoon of soldiers was sitting in a pub, telling each other stories from the war. Plus the work they've done to add audio to the footage was very well done, with believable sound effects.

In the end, I was very surprised by this movie. The 100 minutes of runtime flies by. Watch it.

9/10

For the last few years, I've become a bit obsessed with the insanity that was World War I. The way that the fighting escalated to such terrific levels is impossible to grasp. WWI appeared to be as horrific and as close to Hell on Earth as there has ever been.

If Peter Jackson's restoration (or perhaps his re-imagination) of old WWI footage accomplishes anything, it will make you think about the horrors of war. This is not a documentary that covers the specific battles of the Great War. Instead, it focuses on the men and boys that lived and died. The entire film is narrated with commentary from men who were there. It's mostly heartbreaking and left me with questions about blind loyalty to a country or a cause.

This film contains real photographs and footage of horrifically slaughtered people and animals. There are a number of documentaries that cover the history of WWI better than this, though. If you're interested in an amazing historical reference, listen to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast, specifically the six-part "Blueprint for Armageddon" series.

The voice over of actual survivors paired with these old images makes it feel real. Only point is that they only interviewed one side, but I guess that's fair

It was an outstanding display of technology and restoration with even funny and thoughtful moments... and yet a bit unsatisfying. It somehow feels weird going out of the cinema, whistling quite cheerful the tune from the credits.

Brilliant.
If I hadn't been in a state of shock throughout most it I most likely would have cried.

The colorization is superb and really brings this piece to life, amongst all death. The destruction of war is overwhelming. Disgusting.