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The Oscar-winning filmmaker discusses his new film about wwi, which uses restored footage and veteran interviews TO produce an astonishing new interpretation Of The conflict
Hadrian’s Wall, Lawrence of Arabia’s cottage, and Peter Jackson talks about his new WWI film
In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and 14-18 NOW, Sir Peter Jackson has directed and produced a new documentary about WWI called They Shall Not Grow Old. Using archive footage and extensive veteran testimony from the BBC and IWM, Jackson has used colourisation, 3D and other techniques to reveal the Western Front in unprecedented detail.
HOW WERE YOU APPROACHED TO MAKE THE FILM?
The IWM approached me about three years ago and asked if I would be interested in doing a documentary for the centenary. They didn’t know what it would be, but they’ve got many hours of WWI footage and wanted to see it used differently.
It took me a while to imagine anything beyond the usual documentaries we’ve all seen, where a historian walks on the Western Front, talks to the camera and we then see excerpts of archive footage. Then I came up with the thought, “How well can we restore the old footage using all of the computer power that we’ve got? How far can you go with 100-yearold footage and make it as fresh and new as you possibly can?”
I pitched that to the IWM and they sent us films. We started a process of experimenting, and the results were far beyond anything I imagined. I couldn’t believe how sharp and clear the footage was. You can see detail that takes away the fog of 100 years. You’re blowing the mists of time away, and it suddenly comes into literal, sharp focus.
WHAT CAN AUDIENCES EXPECT TO SEE?
It is a feature-length film, although it started out as a short. We first discussed that it would be 30 minutes long, but as our techniques got better we’ve been able to make a 90-minute film, which pleases me.
The film that has emerged focuses on the British infantry experience on the Western Front. It’s not the story of the war, it’s the story of being a soldier in the war, and the only voices we hear are from the veterans that fought there. We have taken a wide range of people from the BBC and IWM audio archives and put together an account that goes from enlistment to demobilisation. It takes you through the infantry experience and focuses on things like, “What did you eat? Were you scared? What was it like to be in a battle?”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE VETERAN INTERVIEWS USED IN THE FILM?
I wanted to stay away from interviews that were done in the 1980s-90s when they were very old men. When those guys got old I couldn’t help but feel they were saying what the director wanted them to say, rather than just talking about the war.
The 1960s-70s is the period we used, so that while the guys weren’t young they certainly weren’t ancient. They were able to recount things incredibly well and talked with a great deal of honesty. There is a lot of fantastic detail that I’d never heard before that we could use. That was the important thing; I wanted them to simply say it as they saw it, without any modern spin.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVOURITE SCENES?
One of the things that surprised me, although I knew it on one level, was that we kept finding films of German prisoners helping with first aid. It didn’t matter if it was a wounded Brit or German – they were just pitching in along with the British to try to help out once they had been captured.
Also, when you hear the British veterans talking about the Germans you realise how different WWI was to WWII in that regard. It wasn’t a political war of hatred, or a regime that was doing despicable things – although obviously during WWI despicable things occurred. The British largely regarded the Germans as being the same as them. They knew the Germans were suffering the same mud, cold and food as they were, and so they had a strange kinship, even though they killed each other in vast numbers.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS HAD AN INTEREST IN WWI?
I have. My grandfather was in the South Wales Borderers from 1910-19 so he went through everything. He won the DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) at Gallipoli, was wounded on the first day of the Somme and was at Passchendaele. He eventually suffered for it because he died in 1940. He was only 50 but he died from ill health that was sustained from multiple injuries.
My father always spoke about him and would buy WWI books, especially to do with places where my grandfather had been. I used to read those, and it was strange because I had this concept of my British grandfather at Gallipoli but being a Kiwi that campaign is a huge thing in New Zealand.
There were also obviously WWI veterans still alive. I remember in our village there was an old bloke called Alf Fuller who would sit coughing on a park bench because he had been gassed. I would talk to him, and you couldn’t grow up in the 60s and 70s without being surrounded by veterans of both world wars.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE AUDIENCES WILL LEARN FROM THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD?
What I hope is that it makes you think that those who fought were just the same as us. They were no different, and yet what they experienced was something extraordinary in all sorts of ways, both good and bad. Their human response to what they experienced is strangely familiar, because we all go through times of hardship, suffering, joy and pleasure. We hear these guys talking about the same things that we feel, and you suddenly realise that 100 years has just evaporated, and that makes it more immediate.