They Shall Not Grow Old is a documentary collaboration between the acclaimed director of the
Lord of the Rings trilogy and the British Imperial War Museum and consists entirely of restored World War I footage from the British trenches with exposition taken from hundreds of hours of recordings of actual war veterans talking about their experiences in the trenches.
They Shall Not Grow Old is a rare technical achievement that applies the best of modern post-production.
The bookends to Jackson’s documentary are presented in the style of a classic zoetrope in smaller dimensions than the rest of the film. This is important because these two segments represent two vital themes presented of the Great War: naïveté and denial.