They Shall Not Grow Old 2018
Directed by Peter Jackson · 99 mins · 1,421 views
Synopsis
Trailers
Reviews (171)
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K
Scientific Fact: No matter what year it is, or where you are, if you point a camera at a group of young men one of them will say “Hi mum!”
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M
Among the unruly film conservationist community – an elusive and underloved subsection of society at the best of times – there is much discontent afoot. Peter Jackson’s latest project, a commission from the Imperial War Museum to mark the centenary of the First World War’s conclusion, has been considered by some in said community to be an act of barbarity, an unjustifiable marring of historical record for the sake of empty titillation. This project, entitled They Shall Not Grow Old, is understandably controversial: Jackson has taken archive footage from the Western Front and not only colourized it, but dubbed it with sound and rendered it in 3D. And that’s not even to mention blowing up 4:3 to 16:9, often considered…
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G
I don’t know if they’re doing this at all the screenings, but I was lucky enough to have a 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary of the film play after the credits. Absolutely amazing seeing the technical feats and their process. My screening was also in 3D, which was pretty effective. Narratively, this is nothing groundbreaking for the documentary format. It’s basically audio of interviews with footage playing which loosely pictures what’s being described. Although it’s the sheer organization and editing of that 700 hours of footage and 300 hours of audio interviews that’s incredible. The fact that Jackson chose to tell the story solely from the perspective of the soldiers who were *there* and exclude all other historians and “experts” was a…
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C
Selten so toll restauriertes und neu vertontes Material aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg gesehen!
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M
Classic Peter Jackson tech fetish crossed with classic Peter Jackson unvarnished sentiment. THE HOBBIT didn’t need 48fps (or two extra movies for that matter but that’s neither there nor back again), and this footage didn’t need to be colorized and augmented with sound. It’s still super super neat. I want to hear the interview with the guy who took all the pictures of his fellow soldiers taking a shit.
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R
visually impressive but there is something about putting alien voices to dead men, and then having ghostly disconnected narration that makes me feel oily inside. i would question the authenticity of the video footage as in this was most likely staged propaganda of its time in the first place. does a good job showing the horrors of war but it’s a bit too “this was great fun” army chat and doesn’t focus on the absolute futility of ordinary men fighting wars for rich people back in their respective countries. i wonder if in 100 years people will be watching a romanticised version of the iraq war with the intention of delivering a copy to every classroom in england.
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H
I don’t know what this film wants to be. If it’s attempting to be an historical account of a part of the First World War, it didn’t achieve that. If it’s a showpiece for Peter Jackson’s technical prowess, it wasn’t that either. The depressing conclusion is They Shall Not Grow Old succeeds best at being a piece of propaganda, and not a particularly convincing one at that. The film’s lack of historical grounding is a huge detriment, especially considering its subject matter. Mr. Jackson is not at heart a documentarian, and because of this he is unable to recognize basic flaws in what he’s doing. The entirety of the film’s narrative is recorded accounts of soldiers who have survived the…
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T
I will award this “Outstanding Contribution to Cinema History” of the Year.
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SSean Baker 8 月 25, 2026
Truly incredible. Very happy I took advantage of the one night only screening at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. On the big screen. (I know how much some of you love when I state that) The incredible restoration, colorization, 3D application and sound work transform the archival news footage in to a totally immersive experience. It’s educational to boot! It was followed by a 30 minute making-of doc that was quite informative and just as fascinating. Odd this was looked over in terms of awards this year. Not only does it deserve recognition as a historical documentary but it’s a technical feat as well.
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“In fact I tend to actively avoid learning about history” -Quote from a review of this that makes me want to drink until I pass out (sorry). Trench warfare SUUUUUCKED without Wonder Woman. As people evolve more and more into bots with no ability to establish fact vs. fiction, I’m thankful for persons like Peter Jackson for taking an interest in history and the value that bringing history to life can have for persons too silly to spend more than an hour or two learning anything, which I would say is the true threat to democracy in America. Ignorance is one hell of a drug. This is one of the only documentaries I have ever watched where I believe saying…
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A
Mit „They Shall Not Grow Old“ hat Herr der Ringe-Regisseur Peter Jackson keine gewöhnliche Geschichtsdokumentation geschaffen, sondern eine cineastische Zeitmaschine. Basierend auf über 100 Stunden historischem Schwarz-Weiß-Filmmaterial und unzähligen Audio-Interviews aus den Archiven des Imperial War Museum und der BBC, wirft der Film einen völlig neuen, zutiefst menschlichen Blick auf den Ersten Weltkrieg. Stärken des Films 1. Bahnbrechende technische Restaurierung Der wohl beeindruckendste Aspekt des Films ist die technische Meisterleistung. Das über 100 Jahre alte Filmmaterial wurde nicht nur gereinigt,…
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I
War, war never changes
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H
– “Every soldier I’ve spoken to experienced the same thing. We were a race apart from the civilians, and you could speak to your comrades, and they understood, but the civilians, it was just a waste of time.” Des interviews en continue de soldats de la Grande Guerre qui accompagne des images pour la plupart colorisées, voir même doublées pour véritablement rentrer dans ces moments d’histoires : deux changements de cadre font littéralement cette avancée vers l’image, vers les évènements.…
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Y
Une superbe idée que d’avoir colorisé et surtout resynchronisé et sonorisé ces images d’archives. La mise en exergue de ces hommes, jeunes et plein d’entrain et plutôt joyeux de partir au combat, la difficulté du quotidien, la découverte que l’ennemi allemand est quelqu’un de bien et comme nous qui aime ses enfants et cultivé. La désillusion au retour de la guerre par la population civile qui ne reconnaît pas les sacrifices et les
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C
Glad this footage isn’t rotting away in a vault somewhere
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T
Okay, if you know me in real life, then you’d know how much WW1 as a subject means to me. In school, it was always the topic I was most passionate about, and it’s a period that has ingrained to me my eternal love of history. Therefore, when I heard about They Shall Not Grow Old for the first time eight years ago (I was 14 years old!!!!) I knew I desperately had to see it. In a horrible turn…
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L
The greatest anti war movie. Not because it has a lot of political messaging in it, but rather because it doesn’t. It gives a glimpse of what the experience of the First World War must have been like in a terribly honest way. Not one of Peter Jackson’s most well known films but definitely one of his best.
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M
I have mixed feelings about this one. First of all, I’ve certainly seen some better made documentaries. That one felt like a YouTube video your history teacher would turn on during class because she has to fill in the journal in the meantime. I feel like it could’ve been much more impressive from the technical standpoint, the 3D conversion had an uncanny valley effect, the sound design was overwhelming, and the pacing felt too rushed. Also I get that war…
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A
моя первая документалка, поэтому не знаю какую оценку ставить, пусть будет чуть выше среднего
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S
“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them” Lest we forget 🫡
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A
O trabalho com as filmagens de 1900 e bolinha foi gigantesca, ao mesmo tempo que a imagem é boa dms, faz até duvidar, o sentimento ali é totalmente real da primeira guerra. Mas ainda é um documentário né? Massante
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M
Inte ett öga torrt. Så många människor som genomled så mycket till ingen nytta. Vansinne.
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L
They Shall Not Grow Old is a wild title choice for a documentary told from the perspective of surviving soldiers who were like “yeah I was 16 and snuck into the war 10/10 would do it again, great fun, unmatched camaraderie!” plus zero mentions of gay longing and not even a hint of acknowledgement of the heroic carrier pigeons ☹️
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B
Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times. Stick that in your tofu and vape it woketards
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A
That last bit about the confrontation between veterans and normal civilians hit me like a truck. Yeah, they don’t know what it was like, I don’t know what it was like and I really hope I won’t know what it’s like any time soon.
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M
A very fine documentary about World War I from the perspective of the soldiers in the trenches, largely devoid of politics and grand strategy. If you’re looking for a history lesson, you’re looking in the wrong place. This is strictly about trying to get you into the field.
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M
Bei all den Bildmaterial von lachenden Soldaten, muss uns der Regisseur ab und zu noch erinnern, dass Krieg auch unangenehm ist. Voice Over von Soldaten beschränkt sich auf „Wir dachten nicht viel nach und haben unseren Job gemacht“. Am Ende scheint man ja sich dann doch irgendwie einig zu sein, dass Krieg sinnlos ist.
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R
“they put a sign “gott Mit uns” in german, “god with us” we put sign up in English ” we’ve got a mittens too” We don’t know if the German enjoy the joke or not😃”
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U
The armies of the old world marched into the trenches in brilliant colors, with their heads held high, and crawled out, grey and exhausted, covered in mud. The horror of the first world war is one of the most tragic and brutal events to befall humanity, yet it’s so removed from modern culture and perception that it goes forgotten compared to its more famous follower. This is why I believe this documentary is so powerful and remarkable, it tells the…
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L
Super informational (I’m sure I vape breake for 45 min during) but I couldn’t stand the atmosphere this was watched so didn’t get to take away the movemenbt of this movie
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Y
Une superbe idée que d’avoir colorisé et surtout resynchronisé et sonorisé ces images d’archives. La mise en exergue de ces hommes, jeunes et plein d’entrain et plutôt joyeux de partir au combat, la difficulté du quotidien, la découverte que l’ennemi allemand est quelqu’un de bien et comme nous qui aime ses enfants et cultivé. La désillusion au retour de la guerre par la population civile qui ne reconnaît pas les sacrifices et les difficultés rencontrées par les vétérans. Un beau…
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B
Thought it would be right up my street but didn’t really work for me.
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M
life could be worse…you could have to carry a card saying you don’t have underwear
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D
The way this is crafted is magical. Peter Jackson really steps to the side and allows the soldiers to tell their stories in their own words. Often times footage this old can make the world being filmed almost feel disconnected from our own. The recolor, remastering, and addition of sound to this archival footage make these men’s stories that much easier to relate to. It makes it all much more real. This is an absolutely brutal watch, but I think it’s absolutely worth the watch if you can stomach it. Gut wrenching and heartbreaking.
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H
3.75 out of 5 This does an amazing job of making World War I feel immediate and human through its restored footage and firsthand accounts. Peter Jackson’s restoration work is mostly genuinely impressive, even though some of it looks odd and the documentary is more about immersing you in the experience than providing a broad history lesson. Still, it’s fascinating stuff.
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G
Do you think that in another 100 years they’ll be making similar documentaries about the annual Ibiza lads holiday
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NNBrunelle 8 月 3, 2026
I remember being excited for this when it released. Finally got around to it. Technical marvel
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G
Would’ve been better if rowing didn’t get cancelled halfway through the movie
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C
Hands down the best WWI documentary out there absolutely amazing.
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P
I generally do not write reviews, but something in this documentary touched deep into my soul. Such loss, such pain, such anguish. And to what end? Why have we still not learned anything from history? Why do wars go on? Why do boys still die? All of humanity is stuck in no man’s land with fantasy and reality on either side and in the end we are all losers. I just watched this sitting in Germany. These men roamed these…
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J
I’m not usually one for documentaries but this was the perfect companion pieces for the books I’ve most recently read. Voices from the Great War by Peter Vansittart is a similar format where it’s chronologically organized primary sources about WWI. And The Roses of No Man’s Land by Lyn MacDonald is structured similarly except it focuses on the women who served as nurses during the Great War. Once I got past the slight uncanny valley of the digitization and colorization, I found the whole film quite moving. Well done, don’t think I’ll be watching again.
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A
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B
“The war to end all wars”… I understand that this is a personal dedication to Mr Jacksons grandfather who served in the British army himself but war isn’t that one-dimensional after all. I feel this documentary misses out too many other sides, speaking from a British perspective (Conflict background, the service of colonial soldiers, the countless masses that suffered “bomb-shell disease” after the war etc.). Still impressive though, that ratio change gave me the chills.
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J
Been meaning to catch this one since it came out. The recreation of audio is very good. I’m pretty tepid on the way the images were restored using tint colorization and fluidmorph motion effects. In eight years the AI abilities have moved by leaps and bounds, so that’s probably a big part of it. If you don’t yet know how horrific trench warfare was, this movie will educate you. Anyway, the most powerful part to me was when the footage went back to black and white at the end and the men spoke of how hard things were upon their return. The heart breaks.
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N
El mejor documental del ejercito británico en la primera guerra mundial
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B
8/10
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B
Footage from 1914? Yeah Wilt didn’t score 100 points
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A
Absolutely heartbreaking what these lads had to go through
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T
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T
Mademoiselle from Armentières, Parlez-vous?
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M
Prachtige beelden. Verschikkelijk tegelijkertijd. Rauwer beeldmateriaal op zo’n manier weergeven ken ik zelf in ieder geval niet. Bijzonder dat de techniek in staat is om ons een stuk historie terug te geven, zodat we kunnen herdenken dat wat we nooit zouden moeten willen. De film pakt mij minder. Het narratief, verteld vanuit veteranen, lijkt net niet helemaal lekker te matchen met de beelden. Er wordt onderliggend een poging gedaan de beelden aan elkaar te vertellen via hun ervaringen, maar daardoor…
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A
Plotless, relies on body horror and stories that everyone knows happened during war
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L
I wished this was longer. It is rather concise but even just from a British perspective, I feel like so much of WW1 is left out from this. You never really get a sense of the passage of time, how long the men were out in the war. Maybe that was intentional to show the displacement of time the men feel but I don’t think it’s articulated at all. What it does show and depict is amazing and horrifying, it is an archival miracle and masterpiece. But yeah, wanted more, maybe another part covering a different section. Gonna come back to this one later.
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CChason 7 月 28, 2026
I woke up around 9 this morning and this put me back to sleep by 9:45. The archival footage is great but the narration was so boring.
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Tthenomadic 7 月 28, 2026
This is not my first time watching this movie I actually saw it in theaters when it came out I’m pretty sure I was lucky enough to even see it in IMAX. That being said this film can be a tough watch knowing it is all real footage but whenever you watch you forget that, but remember that these were real people with real lives… all of them are dead now the last World War I veteran died in 2012.…
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E
Hoy hace 112 años que empezó la 1ªGM y puede que este se de los documentales más duros que he visto nunca sobre la guerra (que no son pocos). Creo que nadie llega a ser consciente al 100% de lo que es una guerra pero con este documental te quedas muy cerca… wow
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Aadvsactual123 7 月 27, 2026
A documentary that can’t be reviewed in the traditional sense. Authentic footage with first hand accounts of one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. Jackson spares no expense and dumps his usual level of passion into telling the stories of the young men who “will not grow old”.
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A
There’s no context other than the often breathtaking visuals and headless narrators recounting their stories. It means you basically just roll through it like badly CGI’d dwarves knocking about down a badly CGI’d river in badly CGI’d barrels. It’s fine. It starts well. But this is not how I want my WW1 docs. A better film would have more context about who these people were, where they were and what they were doing. I’ve definitely watched this before and remembered absolutely nothing about it and I suspect this is why.
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N
I think history will decide, in the end, that it was not worthwhile.
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Llisteriote_ 7 月 26, 2026
Juste au titre je savais qui était le directeur
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H
Archival footage colourised and run at a realistic speed, with archival voiceover of returned soldiers from WW1. The voiceover is incredibly powerful. I’m not sure it needed the footage.
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F
“they’d had to do what they were told, like us”
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L
You don’t look, you see. You don’t hear, you listen. You taste the top of your mouth, your nose is filled with fumes and death. The veneer of civilization has dropped away. Un documental potente que, gracias a la restauración de imágenes y el testimonio en off —recopilado hace tiempo por historiadores orales— de la experiencia en el frente de algunos veteranos, muestra vívidamente los horrores y el sinsentido de una guerra que lucharon más críos que hombres. Los efectos…
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A
Really incredible work on bringing these old videos to life. Having the entire audio just be interviews with WW1 vets was a really cool way to bring it to life. I’ve seen a lot of WW1 footage, and it was amazing how adding some sharpness, color, and sound and presumably some speed adjustments, doesn’t made it feel so real. Old footage like that always had that veil of disconnection, but this made them feel like normal people in a very abnormal scenario and made it impossible to romanticize.
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R
“But the veneer of civilisation has fallen away” A highly impactful documentary film, that quite literally allows the veterans to tell their own stories. The use of colourisation and additional sound is tasteful and adds to the narrative without distracting from it. A beautiful testament.
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D
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M
“What a fantastic exhibition of anatomy.” “There was a job to be done and you just go on and did it.” It’s a perfect documentary; there is nothing to add. It simply is what it is, an absolutely definitive glimpse into the Great War, with all its awe-inspiring horror and banality of death.
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B
“Uma granada acertou esse homem e arrancou seu braço esquerdo, arrancou sua perna esquerda, o olho esquerdo ficou pendurado no rosto, e ele gritava por Nannie. Seu olho ensanguentado pulsava pendurado. Então eu aturei nele. Eu tive que atirar, ele teria morrido de qualquer forma e eu o salvei do sofrimento, mas isso me machucou”. Praticamente toda a historiografia audiovisual dos conflitos armados do século XX mostra uma assimetria estrutural na representação da Primeira Guerra Mundial em comparação com a…
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idk how to feel about this feels a bit uncanny putting voices over dying men idk
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V
the perfect documentary I’ve ever watched.
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M
Peter Jackson’s curated collection of supremely well restored World War I footage is one of the most important and surprisingly moving documentaries ever released. When there’s horror and heartbreak, it’s stunning in its realism. When there’s levity, it’s a release. This is a film that high school students around the world should watch in their Social Studies and/or History classes. Read them some poems by Sassoon and Owen afterwards too.
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K
this was well made but unfortunately i’m so over this class so i lowkey slept thru most of this
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P
The restored footage looked great here. Would be interested if there were analogous docs covering the other combattants.
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J
“The only thing that did really annoy me was when i went back to work, after i’d got demobilized, I went down to the bloke behind the counter was a bloke who I knew. He said, “where have you been? On nights?”
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R
An amazing marvel of restored film. 92/100
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E
This was so eerie to watch. To be consume never seen before footage with first hand accounts is one thing but to see primary sources ‘reimagined’ is another. Whilst I appreciate Peter Jackson’s project – commissioned by the Imperial War Museum – to ‘colourise’ unseen footage, there is something unethical in giving AI sound to dead men. Not sure how I feel about that. I think a lot about the ethics surrounding digitised history and I’m still deciding with where…
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D
A truly shameful entry in the “oh right I watched that and didn’t rate it” genre. An absolutely devastating documentary with an insane amount of work put in to even have usable footage. If you’re interested in WWI and you’ve never seen this you should fix that immediately.
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I
The outcome of the First World War has less of an immediate influence on us (even if just due to its impact being superseded by its successor) than the Second World War, but it’s a conflict I’m fascinated by almost as much. Especially for students of the general history of warfare the study of the first true industrial, “modern” war is very important. While first-hand accounts cannot replace secondary reading completely, Jackson’s documentary is not only gripping, but also gives…
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A
Worth the watch. Utterly depressing
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A
uma autêntica aula de história contemporânea muito bem representada, sobretudo para os que não a estudam. para os que têm conhecimento, acredito que concordem que certos aspetos podiam ter sido melhor desenvolvidos, nomeadamente do ponto de vista da sexualidade. o nuno de 2023 disse à vaquinhas que viu este filme…. o nuno viu este filme em 2026😁
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J
I don’t care for the all the shit Peter Jackson did to the footage. It looks pretty terrible. But the splicing together of Great War veteran’s voices for the narration is actually very effective, especially at displaying their attitudes towards the war which are interestingly mostly conservative but I think halfway through all these veterans saw all quiet on the western front because they suddenly become the war is futile lot. I do think the visuals help with the pseudo-narrative…
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B
not entirely sure if this is better or worse for its batshit aesthetic choices but it is certainly more interesting… never knew the colorized cleaned-up old footage went so overboard as to have terrifying AI looking animated faces, it doesn’t look the slightest bit real, and I’d hazard a guess this exact film released today would look much better and be widely panned as slop. All that is slapped on top of a pretty good documentary though. Strong bones to…
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T
More of an elaborate tech demo, than an informative documentary, but it does the job.
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D
Syd’s birthday, so naturally we watch war. Lotta old dudes casually talking the most Cannibal Corpse-esque situations.
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L
This was a real eye-opener. I thought I knew all about WW1, but wow! Was I wrong.
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J
I rate this in terms of importance, the importance of being able to have a look inside the window at the horrors that war brings and the things these people went through and faced. An extremely raw, graphic and well made film/documentary that I feel is an important watch.
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P
Fucking Brits amiright!?
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B
Peak ahh history lesson
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B
why did they name it ‘world war 1’? Did they already know there were going to be more? : Actually, the name ‘first world war’ only appeared in 1939, when the second world war started. Before then, people simply referred to it as ‘the great war’ : wow. Personally i don’t think there was anything great about it at all. : great doesn’t necessarily mean good. Great in this case refers to the scale of war. : idk i think…
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Rroselowe207 7 月 7, 2026
Dammmnnn!!! Actual colorized footage, which sometimes looked a little distracting tbh. But if you have any interest in ww1 a moving doc! Thanks Nicole for the rec!!!!
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M
Simplesmente absurdo. Desde a reconstituição das gravações que foram feitas de forma incrível até a escolha das cenas. A narração também foi muito acerta. Ao invés de seguir o padrão e trazer especialistas da área para tecer comentários – o que não seria um problema – a narração fica toda a cargo de sobreviventes do conflito que narram o evento por cima de cenas gravando ilustrando justamente tudo o que está sendo dito. Peter Jackson sem dúvida conseguiu fazer um dos melhores se não melhor documentário sobre guerra.
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M
guerra é, sempre foi, e sempre será a coisa mais sem sentido que o ser humano inventou
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T
Probably one of the best documentaries / films of archived footage I’ve watched, definitely worth the watch if you enjoy learning about WWI
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N
There is a severe lack of WW1 documentaries if this fashion. Peter Jackson went above and beyond to deliver such a beautiful look into the British side of the great war.
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K
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C
The switch between old footage and vintage campaign posters to fully color corrected with sound was craaaaaazy. I know it’s rather lame to prefer the colored stuff but it makes it so much more palpable!! Black and white makes it feel so distant but it’s barely just 100 years ago. And to hear these ppl talk about their experiences… Fuck war and fuck anyone who starts it.
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L
Saw this opening day in theaters with my dad and grandfather.
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G
5/5. Absolutely loved this. Gave me chills, shocked me, and left me just staring at the screen. It feels less like a movie and more like being dropped straight into history. Watching it after All Quiet on the Western Front made it hit even harder, both films capture how glorified war was sold to young men before reality tore that illusion apart. Easily one of the most powerful films I’ve seen, and honestly maybe top 5 for me. I’d love to see this remastered even further with modern AI one day.
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W
Once, for lack of a better term, the “altered footage” kicks in, I was truly mesmerized. Painted the with such a bright paintbrush
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N
He said, “Danke schoen, das ist gut,” and died Lots of emotional turns. It was insane how they could go from talking about lighthearted stories and joking around to talking about leaving 17 year old boys to drown in mud because there was nothing they could do. Mr. Jackson did a fantastic job with this one
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P
I’m sure the restoration process was a great undertaking, but the resulting output looks like blurry AI slop and it undercuts the power of what’s on the screen. I greatly preferred the unaltered black and white footage that bookends the film.
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P
Dulce et decorum est My childlike dream is marching west Dulce et decorum est For my soul I’ve failed the test Dulce et decorum est Come our Johnny join the rest
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M
Oral hygiene was the real casualty of WWI.
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S
Esse documentário é um lembrete da crueldade que os humanos são capazes de exercer contra sua própria espécie. É bem editado, apesar de ser um pouco repetitivo no meio, e monótono. A voz meio alienígena dos soldados que narram, é um pouco ruim, mas ok. Eram apenas jovens contra jovens, que nem sabiam o por quê estavam atirando uns nos outros, enquanto os grandes porcos por de trás de mesas chiques, davam as ordens.
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✶
“everything should be done to avoid war” a truly harrowing film, I think it’s very important to never forget the history of what young soldiers my very age experienced, the horrors in which being. what I find so interesting about WWI is the new technological advancements being introduced at the time, and their design to inflict mass amounts of casualties from rapid artillery fire & gas poisoning. what indescribable terror it must’ve been experiencing these new inhumane ways of warfare in…
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C
The painstaking technical work on display here is laudable, but the actual movie Jackson creates from these primary clips is so boring and impersonal. In particular, the lack of named characters or proper nouns imbues an anonymity to the narrated stories that makes it nigh impossible to get invested in, or attach significance to, the faces of the young men passing before our eyes. No surprise, then, that the credits revealed that the voiceovers were an amalgamation of literally hundreds…
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J
They Shall Not Grow Old is one of the most extraordinary documentaries I’ve ever seen, and one I often show to future film students to demonstrate the incredible possibilities of film restoration. Peter Jackson and his team spent years painstakingly restoring century-old, hand-cranked First World War footage, transforming it into stunning, lifelike images that make the past feel astonishingly present. The film begins like a fairly conventional WWI documentary, but once the restored footage appears in full color, with corrected…
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Y
я ЕБАШУСЬ У МЕНЯ СЛЕЗЫ НЕ ВЫСЫХАЛИ ВЕСЬ ФИЛЬМ война это самое страшное что есть в мире, потому что война это насильственная смерть, а насильственную смерть всегда можно было предотвратить.
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T
Somehow both more effort and less effort then every world war 1 documentary before.
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M
I’m a slut for a war doc But this ain’t it for me. I can appreciate some aspects about the restoration but the dissociated interviews throughout do nothing to invest me. Going to get into bed and fall asleep to Ken Burns
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E
Would’ve been awesome in my modern history class in 2018
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N
Give it to the British to make a truly remarkable statement on war. This Film Is Included In My THE LIST- Films I watched in my lifetime Ranked Best To Worst
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T
Smacked a whole bag of Doritos watching this made me feel like a piece of shit
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S
Great documentary
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A
Kauan odottanut dokumentti tuli vihdoin katsottua. Peter Jacksonin ohjaama teos ensimmäisestä maailmansodasta brittisotilaiden silmin. Sinällään uutta historiatietoa ei paljon tarjoa, mutta se ei ole tarkoituskaan. Yli sata vuotta vanha arkistomateriaali on restauroitu, väritetty ja siihen on lisätty äänet, ja lopputulos on hätkähdyttävä. On kiehtovaa seurata oikeita ihmisiä ja heidän tarinaansa sodan alusta loppuun. Mielenkiintoinen ja tärkeä teos. A long-awaited documentary that I finally got around to watching. Directed by Peter Jackson, it looks at World War I through the eyes…
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I
I’m a big fan of this documentary and its style. I think the archival footage used is so incredible captivating, especially when they show it colorized and with sound. The interviews are fantastic and I think it really shows the true nature of the war.
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J
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B
A war documentary directed by Peter Jackson? Can’t ask for too much more in life – 5 stars.
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M
Beautifully remastered
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F
really cool project, wish there was more of this stuff.
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N
Taking footage from 1914-1918 and digitally restoring it to make it look like its from the 80s is so sick with interviews from British soldiers. Great film!
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H
very informative, i liked the format and how the images went along with the veterans telling their war experience, im kinda shocked that the army let 14 years old enlist like they’re very obv children and expect being killed they will serve no purpose
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W
Sheesh!
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T
Brilliant film to memorialise the greatest tragedy ever.
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M
I don’t know what was more eerie and disturbing, World War I and its nihilistic atrocities or the uncanny valley weirdness of inserting digital guesswork into the old footage.
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W
It’s the same message told in many war movies: War is not worth it, and people who think it does hasn’t been in one.
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J
“I gave every part of my youth to do a job” “Every day a year and every night a century” “Where have you been? On Nights?” Best Doc ever made, yearly rewatch.
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R
Let’s just rip off this band-aid and say it: opinions abound, while media literacy is at an all time low. They Shall Not Grow Old is plagued by moral grandstanding, nonsensical reviews that not only fail to be cohesive arguments, but appeal to fictions as their proof. No, the combined effect of colourists, historians, special effects artists, audio engineers, and other talents does not equate to AI, simply because interpolation as a technique is used. Not only do you show your…
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D
Very sad. RIP
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S
It’s such an impressive and beautiful thing that these men were brought back to life in this way. A film everyone should watch. The realities of war are incomprehensible to the human mind, the veterans in this documentary do their best to teach us the lessons they had the misfortune of learning for us.
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R
The reanimated pictures are so jarring
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WWillbrew365 6 月 7, 2026
The British are so skilled at being blunt but whimsically descriptive in doing so: e.g., “his skull cracked like an egg.”
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B
One of my all time favorite documentaries. As technically impressive as it is moving
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L
A movie everyone needs to watch, as they really deserve to be remembered and never ever forgotten ❤️ 😔
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M
Una de las mejores herramientas para empatizar con el horror de la Gran Guerra. Ahora bien, la elección de las imágenes y los diálogos denotan cierta influencia nacionalista. Y no hay que olvidarse de que el hecho de que el metraje sea original hace que las imágenes contengan la propaganda militarizada que se pretendia proyectar en el momento.
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J
# Top 250 documentaire L’exercice de style est nice (peut-être celui qui inspirera Félix Rose pour sa carrière, messemble que j’y vois pas mal de similitudes?) et c’est surprenament informatif sur la période. J’aurais jamais guessé que les civils anglais étaient aussi peu concerné par les soldats revenant de la guerre! Probablement pas les londoniens, c’est pas spécifié, mais wow c’est vraiment intéressant d’entendre parler de cela. Après, la guerre c’est de la marde on le sait maintenant, All Quiet on the Western Front le dit tout aussi bien. La comparaison est cependant flatteuse, car AQWF est toute qu’une oeuvre!!
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Tt0m_ 6 月 4, 2026
Je pense qu’on l’oublie trop souvent cette première guerre mondiale qui a fait 18 millions de morts et qui est effacé par les 60 millions de la seconde alors que ça n’en reste pas moins important et à ne pas laisser de côté À travers des témoignages et des séquences filmées à l’époque, Peter Jackson nous plonge dans la Grande Guerre une fois les images colorisées en plein écran. Un hommage poignant pour commémorer le centenaire de l’armistice. D’un point…
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R
A beautifully haunting documentary. This was made in a time were a person went through and colourized the footage piece by piece. Now unfortunately AI can do this. It makes this documentary have so much more soul on retrospect. To think a soulless machine could add color to this in an hour compared to the people that cared about this event and took their time to painstakingly add as much color as they could muster, and then tracked and rotoscoped…
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T
Won’t catch me going to war ever under any circumstances
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J
Con este documental, Peter Jackson responde a la pregunta “¿qué decir, cuando parece ya estar todo dicho?”, y lo hace con mucho tacto y respeto. Encuentro mucho valor en escuchar los testimonios directos de los soldados y conocer las condiciones infrahumanas en las que vivieron, sin necesidad de fechas, eventos o lugares. Es mucho más efectivo en evocar la cercanía y empatía de quién mira, un siglo más tarde. Nunca me va a parecer redundante ni repetitivo reiterar la futilidad de la guerra ni el brutal alcance de sus consecuencias.
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B
Quem é que tava com uma câmera no meio da guerra pra filmar o povo perdendo a cabeça
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L
hearing these guys talk about watching their friends die in horrifying and cruel ways when they were 17 years old and then talk about the fact that it really didn’t mean anything and that war is a cruel and pointless endeavor is an incredibly sobering experience it’s not any new concept to say that war is bad but seeing the reality of war so clearly on display makes it so abundantly clear
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SSammygelbz 6 月 1, 2026
I fell asleep to this like it was my job
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A
Beautifully restored. A quiet, affecting reminder that these were just ordinary men.
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E
They shamed these boys into going to war, sent them into hell, and then forgot them when they came home. Fucking hypocrites.
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S
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J
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
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M
Today’s movie of the day was recommended by a local nerd. Brb grabbing my bayonet and never lying about my age to join the military.
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D
There are so many WWII movies and documentaries out there, but WWI seems to get neglected for whatever reason. This documentary does a really great job showing the conditions of the battlefield, and they are worse than you can imagine. The shift from B & W to color is pretty dramatic, and it’s amazing so much footage survived. Not a classic documentary in that there’s no narration other than the soldiers who were involved in the war, it’s basically a “fly on the wall” film. Well worth the watch for anyone who enjoys history, or wants to learn more about WWI.
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H
As far as a WW1 documentary goes, it’s pretty decent. What really pushes it to a great documentary is the audio and video restoration/colorization that Peter Jackson and his crew were able to pull off.
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E
This was a sad ass movie to be watching at 8:00 on Monday during my AP world class
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N
This is a fantastic documentary.
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G
Clever use of a narrow focus on individual soldier experiences, and runs a tight 99 minutes. Worth watching.
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G
Straightforward and interesting
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L
Avec ce travail de l’image impressionnant, Jackson livre un devoir de mémoire en donnant à la parole de ces soldats une épaisseur inédite.
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S
If you’re an enthusiast of WW1 (and who isn’t), it’s a must watch. But there’s also something unsettling about the tech, it doesn’t quite move or look right, which ends up creating more distance from the subjects than the old-timey dirty B&W. It looked a whole lot better and made a lot more sense in Get Back.
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UUFFERNOEDD 10 月 15, 2020
War, war, war. Always horrible. Listening to the ex-servicemen’s descriptions of their mental state in the trenches has given me all sorts of ideas for how to portray the psychology of war if I ever find it to be an alluring subject matter. People a hundred years ago were radically different to people now, and it’s an exceedingly strange experience to realise that.
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SSidViicious 1 月 23, 2020
What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
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Zzoetropic 8 月 18, 2019
Very, very cool. Could be the definitive Great War doc and an obvious in-school video for high schoolers. Frame interpolation has a ways to go still though. Can’t wait for the restoration of this in a hundred years.
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O
Des témoignages en voix-off et des images d’archives, c’est tout ce que vous verrez et entendrez durant 1h39 mais je vous recommande vivement d’aller voir ce documentaire sur la première guerre mondiale. Il est magnifiquement réalisé à mon goût et il peut également beaucoup aider à intégrer les notions importantes de ce sujet d’histoire.
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H
How does the War look from the perspective of soldiers? One thing I’ll always remember is that THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD 4/7/2019
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E
DCP // Hønefoss kino (Sal 2)
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S
I’m glad i’m not in a trench in france
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E
“PJ，我想跟你拍电影”系列。真真有穿越时空的感觉。从默片变成彩色的那一刻，以及后面你意识到镜头中这些在笑着在讲话在走路never grow old的人，都不是演员，都是一百年前真实存在过的人，的每一刻。魔戒和哈比人，PJ为我们打开了中土世界的大门，现在为我们打开了时光倒流100年的大门。PJ一生推！脑残粉流下欣慰的泪水😭
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T
Haunting. A pleasure to watch this at the cinema. Jackson sure knows how to make docos.
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CCarl Patterson 11 月 12, 2018
The speed corrected, enhanced and colourised footage was the most interesting. All the dead bodies were a hard thing to have to see.
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L
This is one of the most harrowing documentaries I’ve ever seen, and getting to see it in theaters was easily the most mesmerized I’ve ever been at a movie. The technology alone to bring footage from over a hundred years ago into such clarity deserves praise alone, but the sound design and lip reading specialists elevates this film immensely. The decision to also only use the voices of combatants instead of historical experts helps to bring a rawness to this…
- Synopsis
- A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.
- Director
- Peter Jackson
- Writer
- Peter Jackson
- Studio
- Imperial War Museums, WingNut Films, 14-18 NOW, House Productions
- Country
- UK, New Zealand
- Language
- English
- Year
- 2018
- Runtime
- 99 mins
- UK16 Oct 2018
- Thailand27 Oct 2019
- USA17 Dec 2018
- Ireland09 Nov 2018
- Australia11 Nov 2018
- Sweden08 Mar 2019
- Netherlands11 Apr 2019
- Finland17 May 2019
- Germany27 Jun 2019
- France03 Jul 2019
- Poland25 Oct 2019
- Hungary05 Dec 2019
- Italy02 Mar 2020
- Denmark09 Nov 2018
- Australia01 Feb 2019
- Japan03 Sep 2019
- Thailand13 Jan 2021
- UK10 Dec 2018
- Netherlands11 Sep 2019
- UK11 Nov 2018
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