Dead Alive and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s new documentary is as much a technical marvel as any of his special effects blockbusters.He not only restored, stabilized and colorized footage from World War I, but even employed forensic lip readers to recreate chatter between soldiers. Oh, and it’s in 3D.
But seeing They Shall Not Grow Old is not as simple as swinging by the multiplex, since the new documentary has only a two-day limited event release. To see They Shall Not Grow Old in theaters, you have only a handful of choices. They Shall Not Grow Old is playing just two days in theaters: Monday, December 17 and Thursday, December 27.
They Shall Not Grow Old is a collaboration between Jackson and London’s Imperial War Museum, who first offered the director 100 hours of severely damaged footage in 2014, when Jackson was in town for the premiere of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies . This year marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice between the Allies and Germany, bringing an end to hostilities on the Western Front of World War I.
After restoring all 100 hours of footage with New Zealand’s Park Road Post Production, Jackson updated the footage to modern frame rate standards, avoiding the too-fast, jerky sensation common to silent film. This was particularly challenging with battlefield footage taken with the era’s hand- cranked cameras, with early cinematographers producing footage with wildly variable frame rates. New frames had to be created digitally to smooth out the footage.
“Can we actually make this 100-year-old footage look like it was shot now?” Jackson said in an interview with Recode, characterizing the documentary’s mission.
Since the silent footage has now audio track, Jackson’s team created one from scratch. A detailed, realistic sound effects mix was added. Lip-read conversations were restored with voice actors, while ‘60s and ‘70s-era Imperial War Museum audio interviews with veterans served for narration.
“The clarity was such that these soldiers on the film came alive,” Jackson told the New York Times. “Their humanity just jumped out at you. This footage has been around for 100 years and these men had been buried behind a fog of damage, a mask of grain and jerkiness and sped-up film. Once restored, it’s the human aspect that you gain the most.”
To check for screenings of They Shall Not Grow Old near you, visit Fathom Events.
