We That Are Left Grow Old

Peter Jackson is a film producer/director whom I’ve admired more than liked. The reason for the subdued affection until now lay in his source materials. Though it costs me many nerd points to say so, I’ve never been a Tolkien enthusiast, so Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (for which he won multiple Oscars) didn’t catch my fancy any more than the books did. That doesn’t prevent me from recognizing what marvelous examples of moviemaking his productions are, and I very much understand why so many viewers like them. So, too, much of his other work including The Hobbit and (as producer) Mortal Engines. (I actually liked his King Kong remake.) Despite being a lukewarm fan, therefore, I had little doubt that the Imperial War Museum made the right choice when they approached Jackson to do something with archive footage from World War One to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the Armistice.

Jackson and his superb visual effects team in New Zealand outdid themselves in the documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. (The title is a dyslexic misquote from Laurence Binyon’s 1914 poem For the Fallen.) The scratchy faded footage with which we all are familiar has been startlingly transformed by technical wizardry. What were once grey shadows emerge as real people in bright true-to-life colors and 3D. Audio has been added including voices where the words of soldiers can be determined by lip movement. Jackson did not attempt a chronological historical telling of the war. There is scarcely a mention of any specific battle or date. Instead, we have the day to day experiences of British soldiers at the Front: the tedium, the terror, the meals, the mud, the casualties, the shelling, the rats, and the trench foot. The footage is accompanied by voiceovers from World War One veterans whose interviews were recorded 50 years ago. At that time World War One was as distant (and as close) as the Vietnam War is today. The veterans speak of selflessness, loyalty, and comradery among fellow soldiers, and casual brutality (but little or no animus) toward the enemy. There are offhand remarks about killing surrendering Germans (the exception rather than the rule, fortunately) for example, because taking prisoners was too much trouble in the circumstances. For all the horrors of war and the desire to see it end, the vets almost uniformly speak of a sudden loss of purpose when the guns fell silent on 11/11/1918.

I’m old enough that there were a lot of World War One veterans still around in my youth. One of my grandfathers, who turned 18 in August 1918, escaped serving by a hair. He was called up but, because of the Armistice, not inducted. (He asked to serve in the infantry because it was the first thing that popped into his head when asked his preference.) Peter Jackson dedicated They Shall Not Grow Old to his own grandfather who did serve with the 2nd South Wales Borderers infantry regiment. I didn’t know enough to question that generation in a meaningful way about their experiences and views when I had the opportunity, but I’m glad Jackson found a way to let them speak to us still.

They Shall Not Grow Old is presently in theaters, but you might have to search for it. The closest multiplex to me that offered it is 20 miles away. There was just myself and one other guy in the theater for the showing, which helps explain why it isn’t on more screens. This is a shame, for World War One is the central calamity of the modern era. Understanding it is the key to understanding the rest of the 20^th century. We are still living in the war’s aftermath. There is no better way at this late date to visualize how it was for the people directly involved at the time than through Jackson’s film.

Thumbs solidly Up.