They Shall Not Grow Old

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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You may think Peter Jackson only makes movies about battles between trolls and elves and dwarves. But the director of “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies brings us a documentary designed to never let the soldiers of World War One be forgotten.

Jackson’s grandfather fought in WWI. This new film is dedicated to him.

Not known for documentaries, Peter Jackson surprises us with the passion he puts into “They Shall Not Grow Old.”

Jackson dug out never-before-seen footage from the Imperial War Museum’s archive, added audio from BBC and IWM, inserted sound effects and voice acting to create a you-are-there experience.

What’s more, he used modern cinematic techniques to colorize and upgrade the footage to add to the documentary’s verisimilitude.

Jackson tells us that his film crew reviewed 600 hours of interviews from the BBC and IWM, and culled through 100 hours of original film footage from IWM, in order to make the film. Interviews with some 120 veterans were included.

“We also edited out any references to dates and places, because I didn’t want the movie to be about this day here or that day there,” says Jackson. “There’s hundreds of books about all that stuff. I wanted the film to be a human experience and be agnostic in that way.

So the film becomes more a group portrait than a history lesson.

“They Shall Not Grow Old” is still marching across the screen at Tropic Cinema.

Jackson was approached to undertake this project by 14-18 NOW and the Imperial War Museum in association with BBC. A public service, he did not accept any fee for making the film.

The title was inspired by the line “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old” from the 1914 poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon. It is commonly used in Remembrance Services.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com