An Amazing Cinematic Achievement From Director Peter Jackson!
Director Peter Jackson, known of course for his brilliant “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy among many other films, has now created more cinematic history!
For this “Cult Movie Monday”, I want to share an incredible new work that is actually a hundred years old! Yes, Jackson brings an important and powerful piece of our world history to life!
Returning To World War 1!
“They Shall Not Grow Old” is a new documentary directed and produced by Jackson. But it is so much more than just a collection of old black and white images, many of which are more than one hundred years old.
As wikipedia points out:
“The film was created using original footage of World War I from the Imperial War Museum’s archives, most of it previously unseen, alongside audio from BBC and IWM interviews of British servicemen who fought in the conflict. Most of the footage has been colourised and transformed with modern production techniques, with the addition of sound effects and voice acting to be more evocative and feel closer to the soldiers’ actual experiences.”
Here is the trailer – prepare to be amazed:
As the trailer states perfectly: this war wasn’t lived in black and white, but that was the only way movies where shot at the time, so what Jackson has done is breathe new life into this old material – and therefore brings it to life for a new generation to experience and understand.
My friend and “Losing The Plot” blogger just added:
For the background noise, in addition to the noises you would anticipate, Jackson had a group of lip readers translate any footage of people speaking and then added all of this to the background so that it was both realistic and authentic. That level of detail is what sets this aside I think!
Yes, it’s important that we UNDERSTAND what men and women went through during this horrific war – and to be authentic as “Losing The Plot” says – for example, look at these WW1 statistics:
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I were about 40 million: estimates range from 15 to 19 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.
In an era when vile groups try to discount the past, or in some unforgivable cases claim it never happened, these projects remind us of the futility and shocking loss of life that comes from war. I cannot wait to see this film, which is now on screens nationwide.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 108 reviews. The website’s critical consensus reads, “An impressive technical achievement with a walloping emotional impact, ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ pays brilliant cinematic tribute to the sacrifice of a generation.”
Bravo to Peter Jackson, who just announced another documentary project he is undertaking – one that I can’t wait to see:
Yes, the 1970 documentary “Let It Be” will be re-cut with hundreds of hours of unseen footage, and of course, that pop culture moment when the band took to the roof of their office building in London to play their new music live:
Jackson has been given exclusive access to ALL of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” session footage and will re-cut that documentary for a new generation to experience!
You can see that story here:
Bravo to Jackson for bringing us this important new documentary for “Cult Movie Monday!”