Acclaimed WWI Documentary 'They Shall Not Grow Old' Returning to Theaters in December

Authored by metaflix.com and submitted by MrRandall-Stephens

The film, which takes its name from Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen,’ was assembled using nearly 100 hours of original war footage from the BBC and England’s Imperial War Museums, yielding astonishingly sharpened and colorized footage so crisp and vivid it can be viewed in 3D. The audio and dialogue were derived and enhanced using nearly 600 hours of World War I veteran interviews, diaries, letters, and professional lip-readers.

“The thing that jumps out at you are the people, you know, the humanity, because they suddenly become real human beings," Jackson said in an interview with Forces TV.

The process of enhancing the footage and bringing the experiences of the soldiers back to life prompted Jackson to create a narrative that focused more on the human beings immersed in the conflict than the fighting itself.

“They’re not Charlie Chaplin ... jerky figures anymore," he said. "They’re real people with all the nuances and subtleties of human beings. So therefore, it told me that this should be a human story, not a war story.”

The timing of Jackson’s film returning to theaters is fortuitous, as it occurs just weeks ahead of director Sam Mendes’ blockbuster war drama ‘1917,’ about two young British privates who are given a seemingly impossible mission at the height of the Great War. Mendes’ film is already being called a “Tremendous piece of filmmaking.”

The Fathom Event includes an exclusive introduction from Jackson along with a behind-the-scenes look at how the documentary was made, its historical accuracy, and why the project was so important to him.

Tickets can be purchased via the Fathom Events website.

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yogfthagen on November 24th, 2019 at 15:48 UTC »

Peter Jackson said they had remastered a LOT more footage, enough that they could do a miniseries or a short season documentary. I hope they do.

sherpadoodle on November 24th, 2019 at 15:40 UTC »

I loved every second of this film and have been telling everyone I know to find a copy and give it a watch. I'm honestly not sure which I enjoyed more:the documentary itself, or the "making of" featurette that was shown after. Both are fascinating.

MajorZuma on November 24th, 2019 at 15:11 UTC »

They need to show this Documentary in Schools. Its crazy how good it is and educational.