Jackson doco a hit

Sir Peter Jackson’s latest project debuted at the London Film Festival on Wednesday morning and is already attracting rave reviews.

They Shall Not Grow Old isa documentary that uses archival footage from Britain’s Imperial War Museum and the BBC to bring to life the day-to-day experience of soldiers in World War I. The Kiwi film-maker used state-of-the-art technology to restore, colourise and turn the footage into a 3-D presentation.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described the movie as ‘‘bringing the soldiers unforgettably back to life’’.

‘‘Peter Jackson has created a visually staggering thought experiment; an immersive deep-dive into what it was like for ordinary British soldiers on the Western Front. The effect is electrifying. The soldiers are returned to an eerie, hyperreal kind of life in front of our eyes, like ghosts or figures summoned up in a seance. The faces are unforgettable.’’

His sentiments were echoed by The Times’ Kevin Maher.

‘‘Jackson combines cuttingedge special effects with impeccable curatorial instincts to bring the First World War to life in a way that outmatches and outclasses even the best efforts of movie fiction.’’

Writing for Variety magazine, Guy Lodge thought it a ‘‘a technical dazzler with a surprisingly humane streak’’.

‘‘If this sounds like the world’s most state-of-the-art educational video, that’s exactly what it is. Alongside its UK cinema release, a copy of the film will be sent to every British high school, surely answering the prayers of frazzled history teachers everywhere short on compelling visual aids for the far less abundantly illustrated of the two world wars.

‘‘Yet Jackson, as is his wont, has fashioned his film as a bigscreen experience first and foremost: If the idea of watching WWI archival reels in 3D sounds gimmicky on the face of it, it proves to have an experiential purpose, conveying the juddering movement and chaos of a conflict many of us have largely viewed through calcified still images.’’

The Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Dalton believed the movie was not only a ‘‘superb technical achievement’’ but, ‘‘more importantly suggests new cinematic methods of rescuing history from history books, humanising and dramatising true stories with a modest injection of movie-world artifice’’.

‘‘An immersive primer on the first-hand experiences of British soldiers, this innovative documentary is a haunting, moving and consistently engaging lesson in how to bring the past vividly alive.’’

As well as playing to a starstudded audience, including Prince William, on Tuesday night UK time, They Shall Not Grow Old also screened simultaneously in 250 cinemas around Britain.

The documentary, is set to air on the BBC next month but has no release or screening date in New Zealand.