They Shall Not Grow Old

This evening we went to the cinema to see the premiere of Peter Jackson’s documentary about the First World War, "They Shall Not Grow Old." We first heard about it last week from Ewan, and then we saw Peter Jackson at the Menin Gate, so we were keen to see the film. Then afterwards - it was being screened simultaneously at 250 cinemas throughout the UK - we stayed on to watch Mark Kermode interview Peter Jackson at the London Film Festival, attended by Prince William.
I knew that the film involved enhanced and colourised archive footage, but I was amazed at how effective this was. As well as colourising it, Jackson has speed-corrected the imagery to make it look more natural. Like The Wizard of Oz, it begins in black and white. The war starts and soldiers volunteer, and the footage looks familiarly old-fashioned. But when the soldiers arrive at the front, the footage blooms into colour and suddenly the young men look so real and alive. And we hear them speak too, thanks to lip readers and the voices of actors. Mind you, rather than say much, they mainly smile self-consciously for the camera and nudge each other and burst out laughing - just like young people still do today. They look so young and full of fun, although the documentary also showed the horrors of war with some really distressing images. The filming takes place mainly in the trenches and behind the lines, because of course the cameras were far too big and unwieldy to be carried on to the battlefield. So the small amount of battle film is quite distant and unclear despite Jackson’s best efforts at enhancing it. It was still brutal though. I felt moved by the scene where the British soldiers and their German prisoners of war are sitting together laughing and swapping hats; there is no difference between them and it highlights the futility of war.