They Shall Not Grow Old
Where to watch
Available at home
A soldier's personal journey through the daily life of World War I
Trailer
Why watch this film?
Chief Editor at Filmelier
Employing state-of-the-art technology to transform audio and moving image archive footage more than a century old, Peter Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell the story of World War I: the men who were there. Driven by a personal interest in the conflict, Jackson sets out to explore the day-to-day experience of its combatants.
"There are many films about World War I, but few manage to bridge the gap of authenticity with what they represent as well as They Shall Not Grow Old, a documentary directed by Peter Jackson (the legendary filmmaker behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy). Using testimonies from surviving British veterans, with restored and digitally colorized footage, plus added sound effects and dialogues (reconstructed with the help of lip-reading experts and voice actors), the documentary brings us closer to the experiences and hopes of the men who went to war, many of whom never returned. It's ironic that such a film was achieved with so much intervention from digital technology and other modern techniques. However, Jackson never loses sight of the story that needs to be told: not of specific characters, but of a collective of men with ideals and dreams who were thrown into a war as brutal as it was absurd."