They Shall Not Grow Old
Peter Jackson brings the First World War vividly to life by remastering archive footage with sound and colour.
With the
wealth of archive news footage, documentaries, re-enactments and television
serials, one would have thought that we knew pretty much everything about the living
hell of the front line in the First World War. Yet as those events retreat ever
further into the mists of time, the focus on the true barbarity seems to be becoming
ever sharper. Soldiers who returned from the front line initially refused to
talk about their experience, largely to spare them the agony of reliving their
nightmares, but also because they knew that anybody at home could not even
begin to envisage the horror.
When the
director Peter Jackson was approached by the Imperial War Museum to give their
footage a new angle to coincide with the centenary of the Armistice, he knew
not what a personal odyssey it would become. Dedicated to his grandfather, Sgt.
William Jackson, who fought for the British in the war, Peter Jackson hit on
the idea of restoring the 100 hours of footage sent to him and, relying on the advances
of modern digital expertise, to colourize the material as well, adding sound
effects and dialogue with the help of sound editors and lip readers. The result
is a vivid portrait of life in the trenches as recounted by survivors of the
conflict, whittled down from 600 hours of interviews. It is a technological miracle
that brings an entirely new perspective to the period, introducing a fresh
humanity and even a sense of humour. One voice tells us that, “when the war was
not very active, it was really rather fun. It was not very dangerous. A sort of
out-of-door camping holiday with the boys, with a slight spice of danger to
make it interesting.” Even so, there are many images here that will be hard to
erase from the memory and verbal details to arrest the attention: about the art
of sleeping while standing up, urinating in one’s shoes to keep the soles soft
overnight, the taste of petrol in the water gulped from recycled canteens and
the outdoor toilet bars for communal defecation. Other shots of punctured faces
and eviscerated horses are hard to stomach.
The odd
thing about They Shall Not Grow Old
is that due to our familiarity with war films, the colourful, pristine images at
first feel like just another dramatization. Look closer, and the soldiers merrily
puffing on their cigarettes and pipes on an exercise march, the blackened,
ungainly teeth and the uncertain smiles unused to the intrusion of a movie
camera, remind us that this is – or was – only too real. The footage is
remarkable; its transformation into 21st century cinema completely overwhelming.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Dir Peter Jackson, Pro Clare Olssen and Peter Jackson, Ed Jabez Olssen, Music
Plan 9.
House Productions/Trustees of the Imperial War Museum/WingNut Films-Trafalgar Releasing.
98 mins. UK/New Zealand. 2018. Rel: 9 November 2018. Cert. 15.