The narrative of the film being told exclusively through oral history of soldiers of WWI taken during the 60's and 70's ensures that it had a relevance to today's audience. The masterpiece of the film is the transformation of 13-17 frames per second of 1914-18 film to 24 frames per second for today. This, along with the cleaning and digitisation, of the film suddenly brings the film alive. When colour is added you are virtually there 'at the front'! This can be seen to be the downside of the whole process. In the bringing to life of the old films have we made it Hollywoodesque? This is a slight criticism of a film that enables you to see the vast waste of life that the war was. It does need to be told as it is so pivotal, socially and politically, to the rest of the twentieth century.
Review of They Shall Not Grow Old
