Peter Jackson may be best known for his work on fantasy movies like The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but this year will see the debut of his first documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. What's amazing is, the whole film is restored from hundred-year-old black and white footage, and the transformation is just breathtaking.
Here's the official description:
The acclaimed documentary is an extraordinary look at the soldiers and events of the Great War, using film footage captured at the time, now presented as the world has never seen. By utilizing state-of-the-art restoration, colorization and 3D technologies, and pulling from 600 hours of BBC archival interviews, Jackson puts forth an intensely gripping, immersive and authentic experience through the eyes and voices of the British soldiers who lived it.
I have to say the restoration is so amazing you would think that they were shooting a period piece. It's as if someone took a modern camera and dropped it in the early 1900s. They even fixed the frame rate so that it would look more natural to the eyes.
No doubt this could open doors for more old footage to be restored somewhere down the line. Though it was famously known that there was an entire issue with colorizing old movies, I think documentaries are different in a sense they are less art and more journalism; if you could make a more accurate depiction, then why not?
The film looks absolutely amazing, and I can't wait to see Jackson's debut when it comes to documentary films.
They Shall Not Grow Old hits theaters Dec. 17 and 27 only.
See Also: Lord Of The Rings Cast Gets Advice From Original Film's Aragorn
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