I was fortunate enough to see Peter Jackson’s documentary masterpiece They Shall Not Grow Old - which recreates the experience of British WWI foot soldiers entirely from interviews with WWI veterans and masterfully restored WWI footage. Even more fortunate was that I was able to see it in a theater in 3D. It is perhaps the only time in my life I was thankful for the 3D addition to the viewing experience.
Just as impressive is the 30 minute documentary that follows the film, detailing how they recovered and improved the massive stores of WWI footage they were given access to. Changing the speed, the lighting, the tilts, bringing us never before seen moments out of otherwise damaged records.
The sheer visceral shock of seeing the footage corrected, and colored, with audio added — is powerful enough to make the film worth it. But Jackson is still a craftsman at heart (and a genius up top). He employs all sorts of subtle zooms, pans, and angles (of the actual footage) that adds a contemporary cinematic feel to the scenes as they unfold. The effect is that you’re brought to a time that is just out of contemporary memory, and made to realize that it is contemporary. Though the fighting was more brutal than we could ever imagine, the people were just like us.