They Shall Not Grow Old **** / *****
Directed by: Peter
Jackson.
Peter Jackson’s
They Shall Not Grow Old is an odd experience. What he was done is taken old
footage from WWI, and using modern remastering techniques, have cleaned up the
images so they look pristine. At first, the footage is small and boxier – and in
black and white. But when the fighting starts, the footage switches to color>
it’s not perfect color, but it is a heck of a lot of better than colorized old
movies, and the color is key to what Jackson is doing here. The soundtrack of
the movie is made up of a lot of voices of British soldiers who foot in the
war, and describe their experiences. Jackson wants to give a trench’s eye view
of the War – but also make it feel fresh and vibrant – not like an old movie
soon in history class. He succeeds.
In many
ways, WWI is the lesser known older brother of WWII. While everyone can tell
you about that war, WWI doesn’t quite hold the same place in our collective
memory – probably at least in part because there isn’t as much footage of it,
and it hasn’t been as memorialized as WWII – and its veterans – became over the
decades. Jackson’s film seeks to change that – at least in a way. There is not
real talk in the movie about the politics that lead to the war – if you don’t know
why it started when you walk in, you won’t know why when you walk out. As the
voices in the film make clear, they didn’t really know why they were fighting
either. They were determined to go and – and kill the Germans if they must –
but they almost didn’t hold it against them. Some share good memories of the
Germans they did meet during the war, if they didn’t have to kill each other
when they did.
Jackson builds
the narrative slowly here – first how all the young men volunteered and went off
to war, and then what life was like in the trenches. It was dirty and
disgusting – filled with disease and rats. They had little food, and spent all
their time buried in the muck – some of it mud, some it other things. You were
constantly on guard because you didn’t know when artillery would start raining
down on you – or when the gas would come. Eventually, Jackson will get to the
battles themselves – and the pure hell that it was – bodies piling up, corpses
all around you, the wounded everywhere. It is pure chaos.
The color
in the film is key, I think, because it doesn’t allow you the same distance
that old black and white footage does. When WWI is thought about, it’s of a
grim slog, dark greys, and the misery of the mud. That’s true, but as They
Shall Not Grow Old makes clear, it was still a world filled with color – the
men, were mostly boys. The film shows them smiling and laughing. It will also
show the darker moments. Coupled with hearing their voices, it becomes
impossible to write them off to history.
The main
purpose of They Shall Not Grow Old is to pay tribute to these men who fought –
and in many cases – died. The film makes it clear what it thinks of this war –
and most wars – and the catastrophic human toll it takes on those who fight,
for purposes that are not always clear. It is a stirring tribute to those men –
and a reminder of the horrors of war. Jackson is an interesting filmmaker, and
here, he has done something truly special.
