Techniques of Audiovisual Revitalisation of the Past: Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old”
Antoni Michnik
antek_antek@poczta.onet.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2279-2374
Abstract
The author analyses Peter Jackson’s documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old (2018), which was based on the archival film footage from World War I. He examines the use of the documents, arguing that the interventions made by Jackson’s team go beyond film restoration, and proposing the term “revitalization” to describe the effect of these changes. Further, the author analyses Jackson’s artistic choices, revealing the contexts and purposes of different aspects of his treatment of the footage (screenplay, colour palette, etc.), as well as discussing the preparation of the soundtrack in terms of contemporary practices of historical soundscape reconstruction. Finally, the author approaches the immersive aspect of They Shall Not Grow Old, discussing audiovisual narratives of contemporary museums and the beginnings of film, arguing that Jackson’s documentary is in fact about the cinema itself and the memory of the Great War rather than about history.
Keywords:
Peter Jackson, World War I, documentary film, restoration of archival films, reconstruction of historical soundscapes, revitalisation of the pastReferences
Adamson, P. (1991). The Gas Shell Bombardment Record: Some Further Thoughts. The Historical Record Quarterly, (19), ss. 13-15.
Google Scholar
Alvarez-Morales, L., Lopez, M. (2020). Cathedral Acoustics in Early Modern England: Exploring and Recreating the Sounds of the Past. Early Modern Soundscapes Blog. https://emsoundscapes.co.uk/cathedral-acoustics-in-early-modern-england-exploring-and-recreating-the-sounds-of-the-past/
Google Scholar
Aufderheide, P. (2007). Your Country, My Country: How Films About the Iraq War Construct Publics, Framework, 48 (2), ss. 59-61.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/frm.2007.0010
Google Scholar
[b. a.] (2019). https://cinnafilm.com/peter-jackson-documentary-uses-innovative-film-restoration-to-empower-firsthand-accounts-from-world-war-one/
Google Scholar
Bal, M. (2007). Exhibition as Film. W: S. Macdonald, P. Basu (red.), Exhibition Experiments (ss. 71-93). Malden – Oxford – Carlton: Blackwell.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470696118.ch3
Google Scholar
Bijsterveld, K. (2015). Ear-on Exhibitions: Sound In the History Museum, The Public Historian, 37 (4), ss. 73-90. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2015.37.4.73
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2015.37.4.73
Google Scholar
Bottomore, S. (1999). An International Survey of Sound Effects in Early Cinema, Film History, (4), ss. 485-498.
Google Scholar
Bottomore, S. (2001). The Story of Percy Peashaker: Debates About Sound Effects in Early Cinema. W: R. Abel, R. Altman (red.), The Sounds of Early Cinema (ss. 129-142). Bloomington – Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Google Scholar
Cherchi Usai, P. (1996). The Color of Nitrate: Some Factual Observations on Tinting and Toning Manuals for Silent Films. W: R. Abel (red.), Silent Film (ss. 21-30). London: Athlone.
Google Scholar
Chion, M. (1994). Audio-vision: Sound on Screen (tłum. C. Gorbman). New York: Columbia University Press. (Publikacja oryginału: 1990).
Google Scholar
Costello, R. (2016). Black Tommies: British Soldiers of African Descent In the First World War. London: London University Press.
Google Scholar
Crook, T. (2014). Vocalizing the Angels of Mons: Audio Dramas as Propaganda in the Great War of 1914 to 1918, Societies, 4 (2), ss. 180-221. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc4020180
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/soc4020180
Google Scholar
Daley, J. (2018). Listen to the Moment the Guns Fell Silent, Ending World War I. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/listen-moment-guns-fell-silent-ending-world-war-i-180970772/
Google Scholar
Fırat, H. B., Masullo, M., Karadoğan, C., Maffei, L. (2020). The Soundscape Reconstructions of the Early 20th Century Vendor Cries in Streets of Istanbul and Naples With Two 3D Sound Spatialization Approaches. Conference: Inter-Noise 2020, e-congress, Seoul. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348169721_The_soundscape_reconstructions_of_the_early_20_th_century_vendor_cries_in_streets_of_Istanbul_and_Naples_with_two_3D_sound_spatialization_approaches
Google Scholar
Friedberg, A. (2004). Trottoir Roulant: The Cinema and New Mobilities of Spectatorship. W: J. Fullerton, J. Olsson (red.), Allegories of Communication: Intermedial Concerns From Cinema to the Digital (ss. 263-276). Rome: J. Libbey.
Google Scholar
Friedberg, A. (2012). Wirtualne Okno. Od Albertiego do Microsoftu (tłum. A. Rejniak-Majewska, M. Pabiś-Orzeszyna), Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa.
Google Scholar
Gopnick, A. (2019, 14 stycznia). A Few Thoughts On the Authenticity of Peter Jackson’s „They Shall Not Grow Old”. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-few-thoughts-on-the-authenticity-of-peter-jacksons-they-shall-not-grow-old
Google Scholar
Hanrahan, B. (2014). Reproducing Traces of War: Listening to Gas Shell Bombardment, 1918. Sounding Out!. https://soundstudiesblog.com/2014/07/07/listening-to-traces-of-war-gas-shell-bombardment-1918/
Google Scholar
Hartford, K. (2017). Listening to the Din of the First World War. Sound Studies, (2), ss. 98-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2017.1392227
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2017.1392227
Google Scholar
Henning, M. (2006). Museums, Media and Cultural Theory, New York – Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Google Scholar
Henning, M. (2007). Legibility and Affect: Museums as New Media. W: S. Macdonald, P. Basu (red.), Exhibition Experiments (ss. 25-46). Malden – Oxford – Carlton: Blackwell.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470696118.ch1
Google Scholar
Hurwitz, M. (2019). Real War: How Peter Jackson’s „They Shall Not Grow Old” Breathed Life into 100-Year-Old Archival Footage. Studio Daily. https://www.studiodaily.com/2019/05/real-war-peter-jacksons-shall-not-grow-old-breathed-life-100-year-old-archival-footage/
Google Scholar
Kermode, M. (2018). „They Shall Not Grow Old” Review: An Utterly Breathtaking Journey Into the Trenches. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/11/they-shall-not-grow-old-peter-jackson-review-first-world-war-footage
Google Scholar
Kittler, F. (1999). Gramophone, Film, Typewriter (tłum. G. Winthrop-Young, M. Wutz). Stanford: Stanford University Press. (Publikacja oryginału: 1986).
Google Scholar
Leitner, D. (2018). The Documentary Masterpiece That Is Peter Jackson’s „They Shall Not Grow Old”. Filmmaker Magazine. https://filmmakermagazine.com/106589-the-documentary-masterpiece-that-is-peter-jacksons-they-shall-not-grow-old/#.YE7jfBYo_IU
Google Scholar
Michnik, A. (2014). 1914-1918: narodziny sztuki prowadzenia nowoczesnej akustycznej wojny, Przegląd Humanistyczny, 4 (445), ss. 19-30.
Google Scholar
Michnik, A. (2018). (Pre)Historia pewnych nadużyć. Radiotechnologie I wojny światowej. Glissando, 3 (35), ss. 154-167.
Google Scholar
Michnik, A. (2019). Czym jest nagranie? Dwutygodnik.com, 5 (256). https://www.dwutygodnik.com/artykul/8218-artystka-w-archiwum-czym-jest-nagranie.html
Google Scholar
Michnik, A. (2019). Męska histeria i wojenni bohaterowie. Soniczne obrażenia, urazy uszu oraz ich leczenie podczas I wojny światowej. Glissando, 1 (36), ss. 36-45.
Google Scholar
Michnik, A. (2020). Ścieżki Chrisa Watsona. Afekty i performatywna sprawczość nagrań terenowych w kinie doby katastrofy ekologicznej. Kwartalnik Filmowy, (111), ss. 105-122.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36744/kf.431
Google Scholar
Morat, D. (2014). Cheer, Songs and Marching Sounds: Acoustic Mobilization and Collective Affects at the Beginning of World War I. W: D. Morat (red.) Sounds of Modern History: Auditory Cultures in 19th and 20th Century Europe (ss. 177-200). New York: Berghahn.
Google Scholar
Ndalianis, A. (2004). Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment. Cambridge – London: MIT Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4912.001.0001
Google Scholar
Noakes, L. (2006). Women in the British Army: War and the Gentle Sex 1907-1948. London – New York: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203088326
Google Scholar
Powierska, A. (2020). „Dokument”, „We Have One Heart”, „Papa”. Zagubieni ojcowie, dokument, animacja i autobiografia. Kwartalnik Filmowy, (112), ss. 66-84.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36744/kf.542
Google Scholar
Rosenstone, R. A. (2008). Historia w obrazach/historia w słowach: rozważania nad możliwością przedstawienia historii na taśmie filmowej (tłum. Ł. Zaremba). W: I. Kurz (red.), Film i historia. Antologia (ss. 93-114). Warszawa: WUW. (Publikacja oryginału: 1988).
Google Scholar
Shepherd, J. (2018). „They Shall Not Grow Old”: Is First World War Hyper-Restoration Historical Sacrilege? Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/they-shall-not-grow-old-restored-coloured-footage-first-world-war-peter-jackson-a8626321.html
Google Scholar
Talbot, F. A. (1912). Moving Pictures: How They Are Made and Worked. London: William Heinemann.
Google Scholar
Velikić, D. (2005). Casus Brema (tłum. M. Petryńska). Sejny: Pogranicze. (Publikacja oryginału: 2001).
Google Scholar
Volmar, A. (2014). In Storms of Steel: The Soundscape of World War I and Its Impact on Auditory Media Culture During the Weimar Period. W: D. Morat (red.), Sounds of Modern History: Auditory Cultures in 19th and 20th Century Europe (ss. 227-254). New York: Berghahn.
Google Scholar
White, H. (2008). Historiografia i historiofotia (przeł. Ł. Zaremba). W: I. Kurz (red.), Film i historia. Antologia (ss. 117-127). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. (Publikacja oryginału: 1988).
Google Scholar
Winegard, T. (2012). Indigenous Peoples of British Dominions and the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387
Google Scholar
Authors
Antoni Michnikantek_antek@poczta.onet.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2279-2374
PhD student at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he holds a master’s degree from Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw; culture historian, performer. Founding member of research-performative group Grupa ETC. Since 2013, editor of the Glissando magazine. He published i. a. in Dialog, Konteksty, Kultura Popularna, Kultura Współczesna, Kwartalnik Filmowy, Polish Theatre Journal, Rocznik Historii Sztuki, Ruch Muzyczny, Zeszyty Literackie.
Statistics
Abstract views: 302PDF downloads: 216
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Antoni Michnik
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Antoni Michnik, Chris Watson's Tracks. Affects and Performative Agency of Field Recordings in the Cinema of Climate Disaster Era , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 111 (2020): Senses and Affects
- Antoni Michnik, Between OP, EPI and Fluxus: “The Flicker” by Tony Conrad as an Example of Artistic Strategy of Simulating the Effect of Psychoactive Substances , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 93-94 (2016): American Cinema
- Antoni Michnik, The Discreet Charm of “Populuxe” – Intertextual Wanderings of Scenes From “Design for Dreaming” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 97-98 (2017): Wandering Motifs