The film They Shall Not Grow Old was an incredible movie that portrayed the lives of the men fighting in the trenches during WW1. The footage used in the movie was from archives in the Imperial War Museum in London, but was colorized and given audio to bring it into the 21st century. Peter Jackson, the director, put the footage together to create a cohesive, emotional and moving story.

The movie began by showing the footage in its original form, of soldiers leaving home and heading off to war, but soon it transitions into the colorized, remastered version. I found the transition jarring as it shows how truly amazing what the producers of the film were able to do to that footage from more than 100 years ago. In order to make the footage more appealing and interesting to modern audiences, the production team had to add color and audio to every frame, which seems like a very laborious process but the final product was truly stunning. I almost couldn’t believe that the modernized scenes were even based off of original footage. The colorization really allowed the scenes to seem very real instead of blurry and faded like it looks originally. Throughout the film, the soldiers in the movie were intrigued and confused by the camera filming them. At the time, film was a very specialized field and most people hadn’t seen a camera before. In many of the scenes in the trenches, they were often staring at the camera in confusion and awe, which I found particularly interesting. The editing and colorization also allowed the faces to seem more vibrant and lifelike. I think it made the scenes more relatable and enables the viewer to get a better sense of what the soldiers looked like and being able to read the emotions on their faces.

The spoken narration that was played over the film were from BBC interviews with WW1 veterans in the 60s and 70s. They had hundreds of hours of recordings that they sifted through and cut together to accurately describe each scene that we were seeing. The narration added a dramatic effect as it was like what we were hearing was foreshadowing what were about to see. Since the movie has no dates, no character names and no significant plot line, the viewer is left with the recounts of the experiences that these soldiers had. It portrays well the full range of what being in the trenches at that time would’ve been like. From the initial excitement of enlisting in the army to serve their country, to the horrors they experienced on the front line, the combination of the narration and remastered footage accurately depicts the whole picture.

World War 1 was one of the deadliest battles in the history of mankind, with over 17 million people dying over a span of 4 years. The atrocities committed on the battlefield continue to echo history textbooks and class conversations, but the impact seems to become more distant with every year. In other words, although classrooms provide a necessary space to learn more about the subject matter, there is no supplement for the immersive experience a movie provides. That is exactly what director Peter Jackson hoped to accomplish through his original rendition of WWI – They Shall Not Grow Old. However, even after recognizing all of this, there remains one question that continues to persist; What impact did the restoration of the archival WWI footage have on the audiences’ understanding of the time period?

As someone who lives in a generation dozens of years removed from the WWI, I think that many people are disconnected from the subject matter. This sentiment changed after watching the film. Rather, the movie bridged the gap between the facts and the feelings that the war-induced over a century ago. Unlike traditional textbooks and editorials, They Shall Not Grow Old, made the experience of the petty soldier accessible to the masses. It vanquished the need to travel to the archives and transformed the experiences into an easily digestible, yet heartfelt and impactful discussion that anyone could partake in, regardless of educational background. The appreciation to detail the director took to ensure the replication of the atmosphere during the war, took the authenticity of the movie to a whole new level.

Furthermore, Jackson’s credibility as a director and the techniques he implemented in order to modernize the footage created a piece easily consumable by the 21st-century citizen. After the credits of the film, Jackson goes into detail explaining the painstaking work that went into colorizing the old footage and cataloging the recordings. This process was only the first step in turning the archives into the movie magic that encapsulated the screen. By removing any hindrances, scratchy film, shaky footage, muffled audio, to the audiences, Jackson sets the scene for one of the most original and creative renditions of WW1. In doing so, he manages to transform raw materials into something much greater than any of the individual parts.

Throughout the film, They Shall Not Grow Old, Jackson incorporates many interesting cinematic techniques and truly shifts the focus away from the digital. Thanks to this, the movie was able to capture the feelings, aspirations, and experiences of the common soldier. By modernizing the archived film, the director transports the viewer into the past where they experience first-hand the soldiers’ feelings about conflict, a combatants experience, and their dreams for the future.

They Shall Not Grow Old is a film created with state of the art technology that enhanced and colorized black and white video footage from WW1.  Directed by Peter Jackson, a decorated director, with a team of video, audio and music specialists were able to create a film that allowed the viewers to see original, real imagery in a dynamic and more relatable movie aesthetic.  Documentaries of old war movies tend to be static, black and white footage that is running too quickly or too slow, with no noise except the historians that are speaking over the clip.  Between the techniques themselves and the decisions why Jackson chose those techniques create a fascinating digital project in history.  

Jackson and his team received over 100 hours of audio and over 60 hours of video that they had to watch and listen through to decide what they were going to use for their 99 minute film.  After watching dozens of hours of video Jackson decided that he was going to focus on the film provided by the English to base his film off of.  The English video alone was far too many hours, and his next step was figuring out what the film was going to be about.  Coupled with countless hours of audio, he wanted to create a film that expressed and showed what the actual soldiers were like.  He did not focus on the strategies that went into the battles, or the actual battles themselves, rather he portrayed the day to day lives of actual soldiers.  We have all seen war movies and how the soldiers interact, however that is only how we think they do.  I believe Jackson did an amazing job of personalizing how the soldiers interacted and what they thought of the war before, during and after the fact. 

The audio that was used in the film was only recorded tapes of real veterans from the war speaking about their experiences.  Starting with the the months leading up to the war we got to listen and see the excitement that men and women had for the war.  With men as young as 15 passing for the draft and heading off the war, everyone believed that one English man was worth 10 of anyone else.  They believed they were invincible.  The beginning of the film was all black and white while they were talking about the pre war times.  Once the filming starts to show the armies of the United Kingdom, Jackson switched the videos to color.  Through a machine learning model that uses object classifying to change the color of videos pixel by pixel, it allowed images and videos to come to life.  They also utilized the use of video editing that was capable of making images lighter that were too dark to see anything, or darken images that were too bright to see anything.  

Finally, Jackson’s ability to show what the soldiers were actually thinking, how they acted really struck home to see for the first time what day to day life in war was really like.  At one point a soldier said (along the lines of), that there were very bad times there is no way around that, however in general, on good days of weather, or the time we spent off the line, were quite fun spending time with the boys and telling stories.  Men always tried to keep a level head and would cope with the pressures with comedy and jokes, trying to keep themselves sane.  And more interesting, is how the soldiers were very excited for war before actually entering the front line.  By the end they were wondering why they were even there in the first place.  We got to see what the soldiers thought of the enemy.  Movies regularly portray enemies as evil and heartless.  The clips of audio and video that show the interactions between German and English soldiers showed that they did not hate each other.  Germans were captured and helping the wounded English, making jokes and smoking cigarettes with the enemy. Soldiers said the Germans were normal people just like them, that they loved their families, were bakers and butchers just like them.  Jackson’s decisions coupled with the technologies used made it possible to create a movie like nothing I have seen, and portray real soldiers, real landscapes, and real interactions.  

The movie industry has been captivating minds since the dawn the of motion picture in the late 19th century. A series of black and white images with no sounds, may seem boring in today society although it was an astonishing achievement back then. These B&W images stitched together and played at 10 – 20 frames per second with possible music overlay spawned a whole new market for entertainment. However today’s youth are bored by histories obsolete motion pictures. Film technology has evolved quite a bit over the past 100 years, and much greater film quality is expected from todays generations. Current expectations seek high resolutions and accurate stunning colors and audio which give the film a near lifelike feeling. These expectations have seemingly made the creation of films and documentaries with old footage seem nearly impossible.

The newest work of Peter Jackson, “They Shall Not Grow Old” debunks this myth, as he used original B&W silent footage from World War One to create a stunning and captivating film with immense realism. As film technology has evolved, computer techniques to make the old seem new have also. Jackson used state of the art technology to bring accurate color, resolution and audio to his picture. The visual editing of their process was composed of two main parts. The first was to bring the low resolution black and white footage to a higher resolution with a cleaner look. This task is where Jackson’s team spent most of their time. Their process consisted of sharpening footage, correcting overly and underly exposed shots and reducing random noise in the shot that came from degrading tapes and tape copying. I found the before and after shots of overly exposed film particularly impressive. The second visual task, was to colorize the images. Colorization has always been controversial topic, as some feel as though old films were directed with B&W style in mind. They argue that colorizing film degrades from the directors vision. However Jackson describes how the soldiers during the war did not experience it in black and white, so he aimed to have the film resemble what they saw as close as he could. The end result was stunning, the visual effects combined with sounds effects of all genres created a far more captivating video than the originals shots.

Overall the film did a great job telling the intense tail of the first World War. However the process of creating it is what I found most impressive. Before the introduction and following the credits Peter Jackson summarizes the process of the films creation. This began by telling the viewer that this was not a normal film/documentary with recreated shots that theorized what the soldiers daily life was like. Jackson’s intro gives the viewer a vivid sense realism while watching. Although the video was not 4k quality like works filmed today, the teams editing work combined with an contextualizing intro gave the film realism unparalleled by re enacted documentaries.

I was intrigued by the documentary, and how its goal was achieved, of presenting the footage very differently. It literally and figuratively added color to the videos, and with the added audio of the veterans it was a very interesting take. The documentary went from start to end and carried the attitude of the war with it as well. This was a very interesting and powerful way to display the war. The beginning really showed the excitement and enthusiasm about the war and all the men and boys wanting to join up, even if they were not old enough. The mentality kind of followed through the beginning, and good attitude about the war even as they began to talk about the front lines, however as it got more brutal the audio and video reflected the attitude change. While some of it was a little too gory for me but seeing the true carnage in color added an extra impact that couldn’t have been seen before. The casualties and wounds could still be seen in the black and white versions; however, the real color version makes it more real. There were also many parts about the war that I had not known about, or even considered. Specifically, the technologies that they were lacking, and they type of warfare that was occurring, which also gives an alternative perspective on the type of warfare that occurs today with the new weapons and different intelligence. I also was able to learn about my own great grandfather’s war job, after I got back talked to my dad about the documentary. This showed me that these types of documentaries can not only put on a good show, but also get people talking, which keeps stories from being lost with certain generations.

They Shall Not Grow Olduses technological innovation to allow people in 2019 to feel an authentic connection and greater understanding of an individual in World War I. War is an all-encompassing event. The media’s coverage of war is always highly politicized and presents a bias view, rarely highlighting specific hardships. What is documented is the end result and little of the struggles that produce that result are known. This film presents an intimate observation of authentic footage through a modern lens that gives a voice to the brotherhood and daily lives of war.

One of the most unique parts about this film is its use of perspective. Director Peter Jackson said his goal was to present World War I through the lens of the young men who fought rather than from a historians point of view. This film was a passion project for him. His family fought in the war and he wanted to bring awareness and evoke questions from viewers about their personal family history. The director’s passion about the subject was clearly translated through the shots he chooses for the film. Rather than long shooting scenes, much of the movie is the down time of the soldiers and personal dialogues of their individual backgrounds.

I found the bookends of this film some of the most interesting portions. The initial presentation of black and white imagery coupled with blurry and dark camera footage was a useful contrast to the sudden introduction of color. Although I was listening and interested in the content during the first section I noticed myself become engaged with the introduction of color.

In addition to the introduction of color, another aspect of old footage that detracts from black and white films in the lack of sound. Peter Jackson recreates authentic gunfire, shelling, falling debris giving the footage an even greater modernized quality.

This film presents a prime example of what this course explores. History is filled with information that is lost because of the format of its presentation. We are in the age of obsession with efficiency combined with a quickly deteriorating attention span. The introduction of color and documentation the non-battle times of war brought these men into the twenty-first century. These sixteen and seventeen-year-olds were just like us. This also evoked my thoughts to turn to the incredulity of world wars. I had never been exposed to the naivety of these young men. Many men were quoted in the film questioning why they were even fighting this war. There were even amicable interactions with other German soldiers. One soldier even remarked that war “was like summer camp”. This film highlighted the glory of war and the pride these men felt in fighting for their country. War now is technology and tactic driven rather than unified and bloody.

This film generated an important narrative unique to a story of war. Peter Jackson used his ample resources to bring to life innocent young men’s stories of defending their country.