Which 2018 documentary by Peter Jackson uses restored WWI footage to immerse viewers?

They Shall Not Grow Old is the 2018 documentary by Peter Jackson that uses restored First World War footage to immerse viewers in soldiers’ experiences.

The film was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum and 14–18 NOW, with footage drawn from the museum’s archive. Jackson and his team reviewed about 100 hours of film and 600 hours of interviews with roughly 200 veterans. Much of the silent, black-and-white material was digitally restored, colourised, and given sound effects and carefully matched voices from surviving oral histories.

Jackson deliberately avoided a conventional narrator and reduced the use of dates and place names. Instead, veterans’ own words guide the viewer through training, trench life, combat, and leave. The approach makes the film feel personal rather than like a conventional military history.

The title comes from Laurence Binyon’s 1914 poem “For the Fallen,” whose line “They shall grow not old” is used in the Remembrance Day ceremony. It is sometimes confused with colourised television history series, but this is a feature documentary directed by Jackson.