They Shall Not Grow Old shows World War I through restored archival footage.
Peter Jackson’s 2018 documentary uses film from the Imperial War Museums and audio from the BBC and other archives. The material focuses mainly on British soldiers and their experiences before, during and after service on the Western Front.
The documentary transforms silent black-and-white footage through restoration, colorization and sound design. Lip-read dialogue and archival recordings help create a more immediate sense of the soldiers’ daily lives, training, movement and combat conditions.
The film does not document World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War. Its title comes from Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen,” whose famous line is used in remembrance of those killed in the First World War.