The title of the captivating World War I documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old" comes from "For the Fallen," Laurence Binyon's poetic ode to England's "dead across the sea."
Casualties of trench warfare, countless soldiers indeed didn't grow old. Despite their sacrifices, memories of those whom Binyon called "young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow" faded, too. "The Great War" was eclipsed by the Great Depression and the Greatest Generation fighting "The Good War," as writer Studs Terkel termed World War II.
November's armistice centenary centered renewed attention on the first world war, and that focus will endure due in part to the documentary, which was directed by Peter Jackson, most noted for helming the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. His newest film features no lords, only commoners who rallied around the Union Jack to fight in a foreign war that devolved into a deadly, yearslong slog.
Modern moviegoers may have seen these soldiers before, but mostly in silent, sped-up, black-and-white footage. Using transformative cinematic technologies, Jackson slowed down the film, colorized — and most profoundly humanized — the images. He also added voices of veterans, recorded by the BBC in the 1960s and 1970s, describing their wartime experience.
The process has provoked some historians to question if Jackson's version is verisimilitude, especially because some sound effects of exploding shells were added, the narration wasn't meant to directly reflect the images and other unique techniques differ from some documentaries.
But the impact is indisputable: Men, and memories, who did not grow old are newly unforgettable.
"The aesthetic of documentary realism used to represent reality in the past does not register as realism for viewers today," Carol Donelan, professor of cinema and media studies at Carleton College, said in an e-mail exchange.
"In the post-World War II era, filmgoers were used to seeing war documentaries and newsreels in the movie theaters. Black-and-white film footage and an authoritative voice-over narration came to signify 'reality.' For viewers today, however, the documentary realism of the past can be distancing, estranging, 'not real.' "