They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of the end of the war.

Director:

Peter Jackson

Stars:

Thomas Adlam, William Argent, John Ashby

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 5 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Thomas Adlam	...	Self - Bedfordshire Regiment (voice) (as Capt Thomas Adlam VC)
William Argent	...	Self - Royal Naval Air Service (voice) (as LM William Argent)
John Ashby	...	Self - The Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) (voice) (as Cpl John Ashby)
Attwood	...	Self - British Army (voice) (as Cpl Attwood)
Walter Aust	...	Self - East Yorkshire Regiment (voice) (as Pte Walter Aust)
Donald Bain	...	Self - Seaforth Highlanders (voice) (as Pte Donald Bain)
Thomas Baker	...	Self - Chatham Battalion, Royal Naval Division (voice) (as Pte Thomas Baker)
George Banton	...	Self - 50th Division Headquarters (voice) (as Sig George Banton)
Walter Becklake	...	Self - Northhampyonshire Yeomanry (voice) (as L Cpl Walter Becklake MM)
Arthur Beeton	...	Self - Royal Navy Air Service (voice) (as POM Arthur Beeton)
Robert Bell	...	Self - British Army (voice) (as Mr Robert Bell)
William Benham	...	Self - Hawke Battalion, Royal Navy Division (voice) (as Sub Lt William Benham)
Joseph Biglin	...	Self - Durham Light Infantry (voice) (as Pte Joseph Biglin)
Edwin Bigwood	...	Self - Worcestershire Regiment (voice) (as Pte Edwin Bigwood)
Horace Birks	...	Self - Tanks Corps (voice) (as Capt Horace Birks)

Storyline

Through ground breaking computer restoration technology, filmmaker Peter Jackson's team creates a moving real-to-life depiction of the WWI, as never seen before in restored, vivid colorizing & retiming of the film frames, in order to honor those who fought and more accurately depict this historical moment in world history.

---

Plot Keywords:

world war one | restored film | film restoration | archive footage | male rear nudity | 

---

Taglines:

A ground-breaking documentary directed and produced by Peter Jackson.

---

Genres:

Documentary | History | War

---

Certificate:

RP16

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Peter Jackson was approached to make this film he was allowed unlimited access to the IWM film archives and, as the film was a co-production with the BBC, also allowed access to their film and TV library. He was told he could do whatever he wanted with the project just as long as it was respectful and interesting. Asides from the impressive computer augmented colorization of the monochrome film (which Jackson says would have been even better had he been allowed more time) one of the things he wanted to sort out was for the film to play at a normal speed so the action seen appeared normal and not jerky and jarring. This was also accomplished by a sophisticated computer algorithm, that surprised even Jackson with how well it did its job when the film was being scanned.

---

Goofs

Several shots of tanks appear in the film, both Mark V (Mark Five) and Mark V* (Mark Five Star). They have been colourised green. In reality, tanks of these types were painted "a neutral brown colour". See the article by the British Tank Museum which states that. "Surrendering to the inevitable, towards the end of 1916 it was ordered that the tanks should be painted in a 'neutral brown colour' all over." These tanks entered service in 1918, and were factory-painted brown.

---

Quotes

Soldier: [waving at camera] Hi, mum.

---

Crazy Credits

"Filmed on location on the Western Front, 1914 to 1918"

---

Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 20 Best Documentary Films of the Last Decade (2019)

---

Soundtracks

Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Written by Harry Carlton and Joseph Tunbridge (as JA Tunbridge)
Performed by Plan 9, Joel Watson, Nathan Carlton, Alan Davison, Colin Leeman, Thomas Lord, Jon McQueen and Chris Todd

User Reviews

We DO remember them.

"Trapped in a Charlie Chaplin World". So says director Peter Jackson in a post-screening discussion with Mark Kermode, describing early black and white documentary footage. Whereas modern film runs at 24 fps, most of the old footage is hand cranked, with speeds as low as 12 fps which leads to its jerky nature. Jackson in this project with the Imperial War Museum took their WW1 footage and put it through a 'pipeline process. This cleaned-up and restored the original footage; used clever computer interpolation to add in the missing 6 to 12 frames per second; and then colourised it.

The results are outstanding. Jackson wisely focuses the film on the specific slice of WW1 action from the trenches. And those anonymous figures become real, live, breathing humans on screen. It is obviously tragic that some (and as commented by Jackson, many in one scene) are not to be breathing humans for much longer.

These effects take a while to kick in. The early scenes in the documentary are in the original black and white, describing the recruitment process, and how many of the recruits were under-age. (To explain the varied comments in the film, they should have been 18, although officially shouldn't have been sent overseas until 19).

It is when the troops arrive in France that we suddenly go from black-and-white to the fully restored and colourised footage, and it is a gasp-inducing moment.

All of the audio commentary is from original BBC recordings of war veterans recounting their actual experiences in the trench. Some sound like heroes; some sound like rogues; all came out changed men. Supporting music of WW1 ditties, including the incredibly rude "Mademoiselle from Armentières" over the end credits, is provided by Plan 9.

But equally impressive is the dubbing of the characters onscreen. Jackson employed forensic lip-readers to determine what the soldiers on-screen were saying, and reproduced the speech using appropriate regional accents for the regiments concerned. Jackson also recounts how the words associated with a "pep-talk" speech to troops by an officer he found on an original slip of paper within the regimental records: outstanding. Added sound effects include real-life shelling by the New Zealand army. It all adds to the overall atmosphere of the film.

The film itself is a masterpiece of technical innovation that will change in the future the way in which we should be able to see this sort of early film footage forever. As a documentary it's near-perfection. But if I have a criticism of the cinema showing I attended it is that the 3D tended to detract rather than add to the film. Perhaps this is just my eyesight, but 3D always tends to make images slightly more blurry. Where (like "Gravity") there are great 3D effects to showcase, it's worth the slight negative to get the massive positive. But here, there was no such benefit: 2D would have been better. For those in the UK (and possibly through other broadcasters worldwide) the film is being shown on BBC2 tonight (11/11/18) at 9:30: I will be watching it again to compare and contrast.

Jackson dedicated the film to his grandfather. And almost all of us Brits will have relatives affected by this "war to end all wars". In my case, my grandfather was shot and severely wounded at Leuze Wood on the Somme, lying in the mud for four days and four nights before being recovered... by the Germans! Fortunately he was well-treated and, although dying young, recovered enough to father my father - else I wouldn't be here today writing this. On this Rememberance Sunday, 100 years on, it is a time for us to truly remember the sacrifice these men and boys gave to what, all in the film agree, was a pretty obstinate and pointless conflict.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

UK New Zealand

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 2018 (New Zealand)

Also Known As:

They Shall Not Grow Old

Box Office

Gross USA:

$17,956,913

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$19,866,389

Company Credits

Production Co:

House Productions, Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London, WingNut Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1