Originally Posted by
Mattrick
They Shall Not Grow Old: A really good documentary that is pretty unique in terms of presentation. Much of the film is done through voiceovers from WW1 soldiers. And since they're long dead, there were no talking heads really allowed the spoken experiences and memories to give the images more weight and context. What really gives it weight though is that despite not knowing any of the soldiers names, either through voiceover or on the screen, the documentary was really about living through WW1 and not about World War 1. World War 1 was the end of an era when it came to wars, since World War 2 changed the face of warfare forever (but warfare has even evolved not to resembles WW2 anymore). I really liked the stuff about the Germans they'd captured and the way the soldiers talked about them with fondness and without hatred, and a mutual empathy for how similar they were to themselves, and it's hard to believe warfare ever had any kind of mutual respect or understanding for the plights of your enemies. The epilogue especially was quite sad, as soldiers who'd survived returned to an apathetic England who were disinterested in the war and what they'd been through, and the isolation the soldiers felt. It must have been a horrible feeling. Especially when you think after winning World War 2 the hero's welcome those soldiers got. I suppose that really speaks to the general pointlessness of World War 1 when compared to the evil that had to be defeated in World War 2.
The efforts they put into adding colour and sound to black and white, silent film footage that's 100 years old was quite amazing to behold. It really helps make it feel more real. Book-ending the film with black and white, silent footage really heightened their work, when you see the imperfections in the film, not to mention the janky movements from the low frame rate cameras from those days. I do wish my theatre had a 3D cut of the film because it would've just felt that little bit more real, but I can't complain. Considering it's a 2 hour documentary with no real throughlines other than war starts and war ends, the two hours just flew right by because it was that engrossing.
5/5