How Peter Jackson used modern technology to resurrect the faces of the Great War

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Peter Jackson transformed 100 hours of grainy, century-old archival footage into a hyper-real, immersive experience. By colourising the film and adding voice acting, he aimed to pull soldiers out of the fog of history, turning distant, silent figures into living, breathing men sharing their own stories of the Western Front.

Released in 2018, They Shall Not Grow Old was a monumental restoration project directed by Peter Jackson. Commissioned by 14–18 NOW and the Imperial War Museum, the film relied on 100 hours of original footage and 600 hours of veteran interviews. Jackson’s team meticulously restored the visuals, re-timing the footage from 13 frames per second to 24, and colourised the images to strip away the distance of black-and-white archives. The goal was to humanise the soldiers, moving them beyond the 'Charlie Chaplin-type' caricatures often associated with vintage film.

The film is notable for its lack of traditional narration or historical context. Jackson intentionally removed dates and specific locations, choosing instead to let 120 veterans tell a single, anonymous story through audio excerpts. This approach aimed to provide a raw, human experience of what it felt like to be a British soldier. The soundtrack, constructed from lip-reading and oral histories, was designed to complement the visual restoration, though it has faced scrutiny from historians who question the accuracy of reconstructed regional accents.

While the film received widespread critical acclaim for its technical innovation and emotional impact, it also sparked debate among archivists and historians. Critics raised concerns about the manipulation of original footage and the potential erasure of the original filmmakers' work. Some argued that the film’s focus on immersive artifice streamlines history, stripping away broader socio-political commentary. Despite these critiques, the film remains a landmark in cinematic restoration, grossing over $21.6 million worldwide and demonstrating a powerful, if contested, method for bringing the past into the modern world.

Jackson, who dedicated the film to his grandfather, Sgt. William Jackson, provided his services and the restoration of the IWM archive footage without charge. The project’s success, evidenced by its 99% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, highlights a deep public appetite for new ways to engage with history. By bridging the gap between the archival past and contemporary audiences, Jackson’s work serves as a provocative experiment in how we remember and represent the human experience of war.

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