THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD
A restoration and colourisation of World War I footage as part of Peter Jackson's labour of love for many things connected with that particular conflict is formed into a loose narrative spanning the five years of the war. With forensic lip readers able to provide a 'script' of what was being said by the men in the film stock and other information from interviews and letters, it gives a vivid insight into World War I by the British people who did most of the fighting and dying, rather than military tacticians, the 'top brass', politicians or social historians.
It spans from people joining up to the Armistice and afterwards, with voice contributions from real soldiers, sound effects, and edited with photographs and posters from the time to create an astonishingly powerful and emotional experience. Because some of the footage was originally either 10 or 18 frames per second and has been 'smoothed' to a more natural look with computers creating composite frames so it is now 24fps there is occasionally a slightly surreal, ghostly look to the faces which makes it all the more affecting. Additionally, the footage includes real dead bodies (human, horse and rat), injuries, and is all the better for this 'warts and all' approach to the industrial scale war.
The film is an incredible technical achievement and one to be admired rather than enjoyed. It has apparently been bought by Warner Bros and will be distributed in more cinemas prior to the BBC showing it on Armistice Day. I'm very glad I saw it at a cinema because although I think it will work on TV, I don't think that would be quite the same as seeing it on a very big screen with an audience. If it is showing somewhere near you and there are some tickets available, take the chance to witness something very special.
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