As this historically important anniversary draws to a close, I just want to say that my viewing of this film was that of utter amazement. As a photo colouriser/restorer, I was absolutely astonished at the work PJ's team put into this. The transition from the original film material, then to the stabilised and corrected FPS and then the full colour and sound was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen on the screen. The colour is natural and really helps emphasise the grittiness of war and brings out hidden details that may have been missed in the B&W source. Usually I prefer film not to be tampered with, but as Jackson says, this is how the men saw it - in living colour. The addition of the voiceovers from the surviving soldiers themselves is a great choice and doesn't distract and flows along nicely with the visuals. Throughout I expressed various emotions of sadness and shock, but surprisingly a few laughs, particularly one shot showing a soldier banging a tune on another soldiers helmet as they march. I do wish I had seen this on the big screen and I imagine what I have said is enhanced 100x more with that type of viewing. A fitting tribute to the men that did and didn't come home and I hope it is recognised and picks up many awards.

I was very surprised when I watched "They Shall Not Grow Old" as I think my hopes were set way too high. Instead of seeing amazingly restored archival footage, the whole thing looked much like colorized WWI documentaries I'd seen on television already. Now I am not saying the film was bad....but it wasn't the amazingly restored masterpiece I heard it had been. Yes, Peter Jackson and his team did a ton of work on the film and it is impressive...but not as impressive as I'd hoped.

As for the film itself, it consists of no narration--just snippets from hundreds of different soldiers' accounts of the war. Then, it was all strung together with many, many, many short snippets. I personally would have probably enjoyed less snippets and more lengthy accounts of the war as the style film made it seem a bit choppy and disconnected.

Overall, not a bad film at all but one that didn't leave me as blown away as I expected from a BAFTA-nominated documentary. Good...not great.

By the way, while sitting and watching all this became a bit numbing, this would be a great film to show at a history museum--perhaps to play as you walked around the museum or perhaps cut into snippets that play as you walk about the place.

Peter Jackson was the driving force behind THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD, a film which feels new and fresh despite dealing with the well-chronicled First World War. We thought we'd heard all the stories by now, and seen all the old, grainy film clips, but this feature length documentary's genius lies in the restoration of the old footage to give it a new, glossy, and, most importantly, full-colour look. The soundtrack is entirely accompanied by actors reading out various diary entries from Tommies which adds to the experience immeasurably, and the footage itselfs, of huge explosions, of life in the trenches and the battlefields strewn with the gruesome dead, is often breathtaking. A fitting tribute, then, to those who fell, and one which deserves multiple viewings.