By J.T. Kolness
No one could ever really guess in the early stages of Peter Jackson's career that he would wind up being one of the most technologically pioneering filmmakers of this new millenium, but here we are. Delivering monumental epics with his Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as King Kong, and continuing to push the medium with the visual effects company WETA, for better or for worse (given your opinion on the high-frame-rate Hobbit films or The Lovely Bones), Jackson seems to refuse to be a slouch in the director's chair. In certain screenings of They Shall Not Grow Old, Jackson delivers a forward to the audience, explaining the inception of the film in which the Imperial War Museum granted Jackson their use of World War I footage archives and told him to do whatever he wanted with it. There was never really a concrete idea, just a massive catalog of footage that was left for Jackson to assemble, and he being as bold as he is, challenged himself to create the most authentic look at World War I ever created.
Restoring the footage was the first challenge. What were once scratchy, blurry, hundred year old film strips have transformed into crisp and clear digital images. Assisted with the aid of CGI, Jackson recreates the movements and facial expressions of these soldiers in as careful a manner as possible. There is ever-so-slightly an uncanny valley look to these soldiers when their movements get a tad too smooth, but given what Jackson is working with, it's something very easy to look past. The next challenge was the colorization to accurately repaint our vision of real battle locations. The final challenge, and the icing on the cake of this film, is having all of this footage displayed in immersive 3-D and it's as satisfyingly awe-inspiring as one could hope. It doesn't feel gimmicky, nor does it seem distasteful. In fact, its immersive view of the war gives the audience as startlingly real and understanding look at what it was like to be in the trenches with these men and only amplifies our respect and honor.
Now, the style of the film is the main reason for its need to be seen, otherwise it's nothing you can't get from watching a History Channel program on the subject of World War I. It's all fairly standard information. Backed up with narrative interviews from survivors detailing their recruitment and service, ranging from casual stories of humorous events to details of literal bloody horror, we get a well-rounded perspective of the British side of the war. Nothing groundbreaking, and perhaps short to a fault, as it encapsulates as much as it can into a 90 minute running time. Perhaps this film may not hold up to repeat viewings outside of the theater, but created as a theatrical experience first and foremost, its strengths are undeniable.
Layered over this footage are beautifully ADR-ed voice overs and sound effects that pair so well with the imagery, it's easy to get lost in the experience and completely forget you're watching a restoration. The film begins with a stunning shot of soldiers marching across the battlefield in 3D, the film clip at first shown small against a black screen as we continuously zoom in closer until the soldiers are marching around us. It teases us with that stunning shot and takes about a twenty minute stretch of standardly-restored 2-D black and white footage of pre-war events. But it uses that time to build up the moment to when we jump into the color 3-D and the effect that transition has is comparable to when the aspect ratio opens up in Xavier Dolan's Mommy (2014) or the use of IMAX in the climactic moon landing moment of Damien Chazelle's First Man (2018). The immediate transition will absolutely take your breath away. From then on, the effect holds up throughout the entirety of the film and every now and then it's acceptable to pull away mentally from the film's narrative just to gaze at what you're seeing and think about how amazing it is that they were able to pull this off. As a documentary, it's an acceptably standard film, but as a theatre experience, it's nothing short of astonishing.
"They Shall Not Grow Old", a Warner Bros Pictures release, is rated R for disturbing war images. Running time: 99 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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