Marking the centenary of the First World War, the internationally renowned director Peter Jackson (the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies) uses the voices of the veterans combined with original archival footage to bring to life the reality of war on the front line for a whole new generation.  Footage has been colorized and and transformed with modern production techniques to present never before seen detail.

“Jackson has done a brilliant job of bringing all this to life. When we see footage of land-mine explosions from a century ago, now shown at proper speed, with accompanying sound, they look as epically scary as nuclear blasts. Apocalypse then, apocalypse now. Yet as much as “They Shall Not Grow Old” honors the courage of the soldiers who walked, open eyed, into this snake pit of machine death, the message of the movie, to the extent it has one, is that this happened before, and it could happen again. Our key world leaders are now authoritarians out of central casting, and that includes the leader of the free world, who’s explicit about the fact that he no longer stands for freedom. He stands for saber-rattling, delusions of grandeur, and the violent hatred of “outsiders” — the very cocktail of war. That his darker impulses will stay submerged is by no means forgone. But the best way to rein them in is for the rest of us to never forget what war is. “They Shall Not Grow Old” is an annihilating testament to what it always has been.”

— Owen Gleiberman, Chief Film Critic, Variety

Free to the Public.
Sponsored by Beyond War and Militarism, a committee of the Syracuse Peace Council.