By Nathan Hurlbut
You don’t have to be a fan of history or documentaries to find They Shall Not Grow Old to be a mesmerizing experience. After all, the way the film uses state-of-the-art, modern day technology to transform this century-old footage into a fully dramatic event is truly remarkable.
In an unusual display of inclusivity, director Peter Jackson himself introduces They Shall Not Grow Old, explaining the origins of his involvement in the project. This, as well as an epilogue after the film’s end credits that details the process of making the film, is as fascinating as the documentary itself. Just watching Jackson show off his personal collection of World War I uniforms and military vehicles reveals how much this was a labor of love.
Patience is something the filmmakers must have had in great supply here, for they had to sift through 100 hours of footage, as well as countless more hours of audio recordings to create the film. They use countless snippets of dialogue from interviews with World War I veterans to embellish the footage with a multi-faceted narration from soldiers who actually participated in the events onscreen.
The film also uses colorization to give the footage a more contemporary feel, justifying that the cameramen who shot the original footage clearly would have preferred to shoot in color if it was available at the time. This results in a least one jaw-dropping moment when a previously black-and-white montage of shots is suddenly transformed into a full color, moving image, complete with dialogue and sound effects. It proves to be just one of the film’s many astonishing moments.
It certainly wasn’t an easy process. Jackson’s description of how difficult it was to merely capture the right shade of green or for the grass pictured onscreen shows the commitment to realism here. The film speeds for every single shot also had to be adjusted, as the cameras at the time were hand-cranked and resulted in variable film speeds that looked unnatural when projected uniformly according to today’s current specifications. The filmmakers even employed professional lip readers to transcribe the conversations of the characters onscreen to bring their dialogue to life, adding yet another layer of immersion to the movie.
One of the most affecting techniques Jackson employs here is to blow up the original footage to focus on a single individual, and then, with the aid of a sudden, violent gunshot sound, cut quickly to a short shot of a mortally wounded soldier. It creates a haunting atmosphere that at any time, any soldier could find themselves meeting their demise in the split second of unforeseen gunfire. The fragile nature of human life becomes profoundly apparent.
On its own, the original black and white silent footage the movie uses could have been seen as a dry period document, useful only to historians and obsessive cinephiles with an enormous amount of patience. No such patience is necessary here, however, as They Shall Not Grow Old manages the Herculean task of making this important period of history both accessible and emotionally affecting.
They Shall Not Grow Old is currently playing at Village Theaters North in Big Bear Lake.