"They Shall Not Grow Old" brings WW1 soldiers back to life

On Dec. 17, “They Shall Not Grow Old,” a long awaited action-packed war documentary depicting the story of many men who fought valiantly in World War I, arrived in theaters. The movie, directed by Peter Jackson, utilizes real footage from the WWI era and advanced modern technology to bring the soldier’s narratives back to life, telling the story through their eyes. The film brings its audience into the early twentieth century and onto the warfront, leaving viewers with a lasting passion for their country, along with a stinging pang of pain for all of the lives lost. Accurately depicting the harsh reality of the time, “They Shall Not Grow Old” is empowering, sobering and inspirational.Jackson’s ability to bring WWI to life through cutting edge technology transformed the film. The filmmakers applied coloring to the black and white footage captured during the war, and aimed to give voices to the silent men who lost their lives bravely fighting for their cause. The footage was supplied by the Imperial War Museum, and Jackson sorted through hundreds of hours of video before he selected the storyline for the film. The challenge to convert shaky, 15 frame-per-second footage shot on hand-cranked cameras into modern day cinematic excellence was daunting. However, Jackson was able to digitally impose an additional 13 frames of visual to patch between the existing frames, allowing the video to play smoothly as if it was filmed on a 21st century camera. The team also added audio to the film that was not present in the original video, matching dialogue to the silent lip movements of the soldiers. The film focused not only on the intense fighting, but on the nuances of the men who fought. Jackson depicted the friendships, anger, pain and the passion each soldier faced during their journey, tugging on the viewers’ heartstrings. This allowed audiences to become far more emotionally connected to the characters, bringing the raw, indescribable sorrow of losing a loved one in the war to mean significantly more.All in all, “They Shall Not Grow Old” was an amazing film with an incredibly inspiring theme encouraging viewers to make an impact like the soldiers who fought for America in WWI. If you are looking for a wartime narrative told through state of the art technology that brings audiences into the era with every frame, check out this film in theaters near you.