They Shall Not Grow Old
Dec. 18th, 2018 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenThey Shall Not Grow Old, the documentary commissioned for the 100th anniversary of WW I, has finally arrived in the US. the Empire Film podcast piqued my interest with their review, and then i heard the interview special with Peter Jackson where he talks about the process, and i had to go.
using only period visuals and soldiers' voices, Jackson & co have crafted a British everyman narrative of volunteering, being trained, traveling to the continent, fighting in the trenches, and returning home from WW I. the 30 minutes or so at the heart of the film (the time spent on the continent) is colorized. it is shocking how effective this is, in terms of creating a sense of life and immediacy. the grass! the flowers! the blood! it's hard to believe this was recorded a hundred years ago. it doesn't look like modern film, it can't, but it's better than any restoration i've ever seen due to some wonderful work normalizing the frame rate.* the marriage of the visuals with great audio (squelching mud, whistling artillery shells, regional voices) is highly effective. the young men are charming and funny and full of life; the blood-covered corpses are crawling with flies.
per the making-of that aired after the film here, Jackson is more than a bit of a WW I enthusiast. he has a collection of vintage uniforms, illustrated magazines, and artillery pieces (like you do). he was supposed to make a 30-40 minute special, but he restored 100 hours of archival film footage and made a feature.
if you can see it in the theater, do. in the US your next (only?) chance is December 27th.
*the motion picture cameras of the time were hand-cranked, so the frame rate was supposed to be 18fps, but in practice it ranged anywhere from 15 - 19. and then the holes on the edge of the film stock warp over time. those things together create the jerky look we associate with silent films.
using only period visuals and soldiers' voices, Jackson & co have crafted a British everyman narrative of volunteering, being trained, traveling to the continent, fighting in the trenches, and returning home from WW I. the 30 minutes or so at the heart of the film (the time spent on the continent) is colorized. it is shocking how effective this is, in terms of creating a sense of life and immediacy. the grass! the flowers! the blood! it's hard to believe this was recorded a hundred years ago. it doesn't look like modern film, it can't, but it's better than any restoration i've ever seen due to some wonderful work normalizing the frame rate.* the marriage of the visuals with great audio (squelching mud, whistling artillery shells, regional voices) is highly effective. the young men are charming and funny and full of life; the blood-covered corpses are crawling with flies.
per the making-of that aired after the film here, Jackson is more than a bit of a WW I enthusiast. he has a collection of vintage uniforms, illustrated magazines, and artillery pieces (like you do). he was supposed to make a 30-40 minute special, but he restored 100 hours of archival film footage and made a feature.
if you can see it in the theater, do. in the US your next (only?) chance is December 27th.
*the motion picture cameras of the time were hand-cranked, so the frame rate was supposed to be 18fps, but in practice it ranged anywhere from 15 - 19. and then the holes on the edge of the film stock warp over time. those things together create the jerky look we associate with silent films.
