Review of They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) by Dchipps1945 — 30 Dec 2018

It's certainly interesting to be introduced to the day-to-day tribulations of men who fought in the trenches during WWI, accompanied by some great images. I love war documentaries, and this one was the first of its kind I've seen. Very positive review for that.

The negative thing I need to mention is, the trailer for this film shows a few shots of tanks and soldiers that look fantastic--like they've been restored practically to the point of perfection--looking just like a modern piece of film. However, the majority of the visuals in this film are of significantly poorer quality, with still shots and illustrations often substituted for action shots. Obviously there couldn't have been a cameraman available in many of these situations, but when we're looking at an illustration of a combat scene with a voiceover, this is indistinguishable from many other WWI documentaries I've seen. I was hoping for something really monumental, visually. This isn't that.

Definitely worth seeing for WWI buffs, but not the visual masterpiece it's been promoted to be.