They Shall Not Grow Old: The Great War Lives On

You may think you know everything there is to know about World War I but I bet you've never seen a tale of The Great War told with as much urgency and compassion as Peter Jackson's documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. It was only showing in theaters as a special event, but thankfully has expanded to wider release. So if it's available near you, I highly recommend you check it out, because this is a story that can never grow old.

The movie takes a collection of archival British photo and video footage to painstakingly tell the story of the war from beginning to end and the effect it had on its young soldiers along the way. The narration is from the actual men who fought in the war, and while much has been made of the compelling visual aesthetic of the film, I would argue that I was swayed more by the stories of these men, who matter-of-factly recount horrors and trauma for a cause that no one really understood. They were at war so they were going to stand by their country, but as the movie proceeds, we come to understand how nationalism doesn't really trump basic humanity.

The movie begins quite lightly. None of these young men and boys knew what they were getting into; they thought going to war was a bit of a lark. Supplies were terrible and people just wore whatever uniforms and boots were available regardless of size, and set off merrily to war, with no idea of what awaited them on the front. However, once the movies delves into the day-to-day life of trench warfare, the cheery smiles in all the photographs start to fade. Conditions were appalling in those trenches, and yet it's marvelous to hear these soldiers recount the importance of a cup of tea despite their squalid living conditions. Could anything be more British?

The movie amps up to actual warfare and you slowly realize that the lilting background score has morphed into much more somber music until eventually all you have is silence that is suddenly broken by agonizing bursts of gunfire. At this point, you have a soldier say, "They say your past comes up when you think you're about to die but I hadn't got very much past at 19." Indeed, that's the main tragedy of this film - these soldiers were so young, many well below the age of conscription, and after this war, their lives were irrevocably changed. When they got home, they suffered from PTSD (or shell shock as it was then called) but no one wanted to hear about it. The country had no concept of what these men has been through on the front and they didn't think it was important to talk about it. Everyone wanted to move on, and these men were swept along with the tide, many facing unemployment because who wants to give a job to someone who has only ever been a soldier?

The end of They Shall Not Grow Old is a stark reminder of how we continue to treat our veterans today. Sure, maybe our awareness of PTSD and the horrors of war is better, but we still let a lot of these brave men and women suffer in silence when they return home. We refuse to talk about their experiences because it would make us too uncomfortable. Instead, this movie humanizes these individuals, stripping away the artifice of war to reveal the scared boys who got roped into a tragedy and barely survived. It's a terrific historic documentary but also a poignant reminder of our current political climate and much more distanced view of what it means to go to war.