Directed by: Peter Jackson
Cast: The Men
Swift shot: Peter Jackson is the biggest World War I buff to ever live, and it is remarkable how much of this film was able to happen because of his commitment to his obsession of The Great War. Every second of film is a testament to his dedication to the craft.
Peter Jackson said his goal with They Shall Not Grow Old is to get people interested in World War I, and specifically to find out if anybody in their family was directly impacted by the war. Without World War I, I might not be here writing this today, or at least not in English.
For me, World War I has always been the overlooked war. It was the last war that was basically started because of military alliances alone. There didn’t seem to be this feeling of conquest involved, it was more along the lines of leaders playing chess for the sake of playing the game. But the human toll of this savage conflict was not any game for those who were there.
Europe today is a powder keg and the leaders are like men smoking in an arsenal … A single spark will set off an explosion that will consume us all … I cannot tell you when that explosion will occur, but I can tell you where … Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans will set it off.
Otto Von Bismarck
But Peter Jackson wasn’t interested in telling the story about the geopolitics or the “single spark” that really ignited the terrible war, he wanted to focus on one aspect of the quagmire, the men and what they all endured on the front.
He brings us down to the single infantryman level in a way that is commendable and palpable. See, with World War I, the reason it seems to be the overlooked war by many people in my generation is that whenever we would see footage of the conflict, it was ancient.
The film was shaky, like a nickelodeon flashing faceless black and white ghosts across the screen as some boring sort from the national historical society droned on about large troop movements and strategic level concepts. There was no direct connection to the men. But that’s all changed thanks to Peter Jackson, as he uses all of his technological might to breathe real life and personality into each ghost, each forgotten faceless and voiceless man.
I liked that he focused on just one aspect of the conflict, as he mentioned in the afterword special where he showed the audience the behind the magic, making of the movie. He said there were great naval and aerial encounters and experiences that he had hours of footage to put together, but he didn’t want to muddy the movie by shifting focus.
What I would love to see would be two new movies, one with the naval encounters and one with the infamous air war that led to the legendary dogfights we now take for granted.
It does seem that World War I has seen some popularity among Western audiences. One of my friends, Hiram Murray, a Marine veteran and actor who was in Tango Down, recently completed shooting on The Great War. Next year Hollywood is releasing 1917 globally, and The King’s Man will focus on World War I. I am sure the emergence of the new roaring twenties is playing no small part in this renewed vitality for the era.
They Shall Not Grow Old is not an easy film to endure. In fact, one couple sitting next to me actually left the theater because it was too much for them. Or maybe the guy’s wife was bored. But, she did say something to her husband, and they abruptly left.
This is a movie for people who really want to connect with the men on the ground. And be warned, there is almost nothing left to the imagination. You will see gore and hear the grisly details through the voices of the veterans who were there themselves. Jackson used archived audio clips from interviews with them in the nineteen-sixties.
And in instances where the people are talking on camera, actors were used to lip-sync to bring a real person to life. Because much of the actual footage is shot at differing frame intervals, World War I specials have always had that choppy feeling, but Jackson and his crew went through meticulous reviews to assure they got the timing perfect, and the first time you see and hear a soldier speak is quite remarkable.
They incorporated music and songs from the time to immerse the viewer as much as possible. And where they couldn’t use footage, for example when they were actually crossing No Man’s Land and going “over the top,” Jackson used graphic images from his own personal magazine stores that he has kept since he was a child.
Without Peter Jackson’s passion, this project would have been an empty shell. But when the director just happens to collect functioning World War I artillery, it’s easy to see this was a labor of love.
So, did he succeed in his mission? Yes, he opened up World War I to me in a way that I never thought possible.
To whit – how did World War I impact my family? Quite simply, my great-great grandfather left Bavaria after he received orders to join the Navy. It was said that when he left for Ellis Island, he told them that he “didn’t want to fight in the Kaiser’s damned fool war.”
