They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

The New York Times has an interesting feature on the process to revitalize the footage.

You mean they’ve done a WWI documentary in 3D?

Yes.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Others will likely disagree, but that colorization is wholly unconvincing. It doesn't look natural at all...

 

[SamT]

Needs subscription.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Others will likely disagree, but that colorization is wholly unconvincing. It doesn't look natural at all...

Achieving modern accurate color is impossible, especially on the budget Jackson and company had to work with. While the end result isn't natural, it does create a sense of immediacy that the black and white original footage didn't have.

Needs subscription.

Try opening it in an incognito/private window.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Achieving modern accurate color is impossible, especially on the budget Jackson and company had to work with. While the end result isn't natural, it does create a sense of immediacy that the black and white original footage didn't have.

At least based on the trailer, I disagree. That fake color is much more of a distraction than B&W.

There's no "immediacy" for me - it's the opposite, as I'm taken out of the material because the color looks phony...

 

[Sam Posten]

Going tonight. Theater is mostly sold out. I had to take end of wheelchair row

 

[Tino]

How Peter Jackson Made WWIFootage Seem Astonishingly New
The director restored archival combat film to pristine clarity for “They Shall Not Grow Old.”

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/movies/peter-jackson-war-movie.html

 

[Sam Posten]

Very very good. Stay the extra half hour for the making of. Sound was excellent. Coloring was more muted than I expected and you can’t fix sharpness.

 

[GlennF]

Tried to go see this tonight in Toronto but the theatre was sold out over a half hour before it was even scheduled to begin. Hopefully, we will get another kick at the can.

 

[Sam Posten]

Tried to go see this tonight in Toronto but the theatre was sold out over a half hour before it was even scheduled to begin. Hopefully, we will get another kick at the can.

Recommend you lock in for th 27th NOW.

 

[Andrew M]

Saw this today at the Century Daly City in Real D 3D. Very powerful film. The techniques used to restore 100 year film stock, sync voices, etc. were explained by Peter Jackson in a 30 minute afterword. This film has the best quality original film from the Great War I have ever seen in 40+ years of studying historical footage. Plan on seeing it again on December 27th.

 

[SFMike]

Saw this great film this afternoon in San Rafael CA and loved all the choices Peter Jackson made in this presentation. A truly amazing work of art. The bad news is there is a Blu-ray version on sale in the UK without the 3D option. This really sucks. I hope that Warner Brothers will release a home video version in the US with the 3D option retained. I felt the excellent 3D conversion added much to the project. Wish there was some way to impress this on Warner Home Video as they still do some 3D Blu-ray releases.

 

[nara]

At least based on the trailer, I disagree. That fake color is much more of a distraction than B&W.

There's no "immediacy" for me - it's the opposite, as I'm taken out of the material because the color looks phony...

I disagree.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Jackson presents an equally wonderful and sobering use of modern digital technology and filmmaking techniques to bring to life the everyday British soldiers of The Great War. Despite the literal loudness of shelling and the newly restored vibrancy of the images this is most decidedly a quiet, reverent film that leaves aside the common strategies, agendas and politics of that war, and focuses on the simple humanism.

8/10

The post-film 30-minute documentary is fantastic.

 

[Sam Posten]

Boom.
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/a7d374/peter_jacksons_world_war_1_documentary_they_shall/

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I very much wanted to see this, but unfortunately, none of the screenings that Fathom arranged are compatible with my work schedule. Hopefully there will be a BD3D release somewhere in the world...

 

[Edwin-S]

I thought you figured Jackson was no longer relevant as a filmmaker.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That’s taking it a bit out of context. But to the general idea that Peter Jackson’s name alone isn’t enough to sell a $100 million movie in a genre that no longer appeals to a wide audience, I think the weekend’s box office result for Mortal Engines proved that point.

 

[Brent Reid]

There has been an awful lot of misinformation perpetuated in the marketing of this film, most of it by Peter Jackson himself. Just for starters, neither he nor his team restored anything: all the footage used was fully restored by the Imperial War Museum years ago. The films cannibalised for this quasi-documentary were originally shot in various slightly differing aspect ratios, all roughly corresponding to the Academy standard. They were shot in dangerous, adverse conditions by top british directors and cinematographers of the time, all of whom are fully recorded. But their names have been completely airbrushed from Jackson's finished work.

We are led to believe that Jackson personally discovered this decrepit, scrappy old footage and resurrected it from the depths of mouldering anonymity. Not true: what he did do was severely crop and edit the carefully composed and edited original restored images, subject them to extreme degraining and DNR, then wave his magic 3D and colorizing wand all over them. So much for honouring original directorial intent. And that's not all.

I urge anyone interested in this film to read these two pieces by friends of mine, which will provide a much more rounded viewpoint than the marketing hype:

• They Shall Not Grow Old and the Elephant in the Room by Lawrence Napper
• They Shall Not Grow Old Honours Veterans But Not the Archive by Pamela Hutchinson

I'm well aware of all the potential benefits of a project like this, and anything that puts the true suffering and sacrifices of war on the forefront of the agenda is a good thing. However, for no good reason, this has been carried out in a very disingenuous and disrespectful manner.

 

[GlennF]

Couldn't get in on Monday. Went on-line to try and buy tickets for the 2nd showing on the 27th. Already sold out. I suspect more screenings will happen with that kind of success.....he says hopefully.