They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

(On Cable TV, November 2019) There are movies that are best approached cold, considering that the mythology around them often leads to erroneous viewing assumptions. In the case of They Shall Not Grow Old, it means that a terrific film by itself was actively harmed by a disingenuous marketing campaign. The basics of the film are these: Director Peter Jackson wanted to pay homage to his family members having fought in WW1, so he produced and directed a documentary that used modern technology to breathe life into century-old archive footage. The film works almost as an oral history, as colourized and sharpened footage is accompanied by sound effects and narration adapted from contemporary accounts of the war. The point here is to present a soldier’s view of the war without much context other than the experiences of the men on the ground. As such, it is a remarkable achievement—the touched-up footage springs to life in near-contemporary fashion, and the film is emotionally effective in presenting the experiences of a generation that saw many killed in combat, never to go home or grow old. It’s a deeply effective, finely tuned moviegoing experience that makes history come alive and viewers realize that century-old events retain considerable relevance. If that was your experience in watching the film cold, or if this praise piques your curiosity to the point of watching the film then congratulations—no need to read any further. The rest is a commentary on how overly enthusiastic marketing can end up harming a film. They Shall Not Grow Old’s trailer strongly (wrongly) suggested that the original documentary footage of the war was in disrepair by the time it was enhanced by the filmmakers. (This plays into contemporary perception of old film footage as being scratchy, low-resolution and jittery—far from being true in many cases.)  Paradoxically, I can live with colourizing for dramatic impact better than misleading claims that the original footage needed almost heroic restoration work—the duplicity of the marketing being worse than the filmmaker’s liberties with the material. Of course, this should not be a concern if you, blissfully living years after the promotional push for the film, just happen to see it. But call it a cautionary lesson is believing the next promotional campaign you hear.