ONE OF the best-reviewed productions of the year in the UK is coming to the US – and tickets are now on sale.
Warner Bros. Pictures acclaimed World War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” will be broadcast in U.S. theaters on Dec. 17 and Dec. 27. The film, directed by Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame), is a 2018 British film created using original footage of World War I from the archives of the Imperial War Museum (IWM), most of it previously unseen, alongside audio from BBC and IWM interviews of British servicemen who fought in the conflict. Most of the footage has been colourized and transformed with modern production techniques, with the addition of sound effects and voice acting to be more evocative and feel closer to the soldiers’ actual experiences.
It is Jackson’s first documentary as director and he has said that he intended the film to be an immersive experience of “what it was like to be a soldier” rather than a story or a recount of events; the crew reviewed 600 hours of interviews from 200 veterans, and 100 hours of original film footage to make the film. The title was inspired by the line “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old” from the 1914 poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon, famous for being used in the Ode of Remembrance.
They Shall Not Grow Old premiered simultaneously at the BFI London Film Festival and in selected theaters in the UK on 16 October 2018, before airing on BBC Two on 11 November 2018 (the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice of 11 November 1918). It was acclaimed by critics for its restoration work, immersive atmosphere, and portrayal of war.
For tickets, visit: fathomevents.com/events/they-shall-not-grow-old.
