(Movie Review Thread) I just saw Peter Jackson's new film They Shall Not Grow Old, a documentary on World War I. The film is technically breathtaking, but I was shocked to see a film on WWI that is completely apolitical. It's about political mass slaughter but it avoids politics!
They Shall Not Grow Old does not even try to explain why WWI was fought — let alone why it was an entirely preventable, pointless inter-imperialist bloodbath that led to the unnecessary deaths of tens of millions of (almost entirely poor) people!
Instead the whole point of the film is to humanize the soldiers fighting in WWI and show what day-to-day life was for them. And that's great; it's important to see the mind-boggling horrors of WWI and trench warfare. But that must be done *in historical and political context*.
In the entire 99-minute movie, there are only a few brief comments, made quickly in passing, where veterans mention how pointless the war was. But the film doesn't emphasize this crucial fact — that a war that led to tens of millions of deaths *could have easily been prevented*!
One of the strengths of the movie are the moments in which British WWI veterans discuss how, when they finally met German troops, they realized how much they had in common, and saw that the other soldiers (cannon fodder for their respective capitalist empire) were just like them.
And it goes without saying that They Shall Not Grow Old is, technically, a masterpiece. The remastered and colorized 100-year old footage of World War I is incredible. The foley sounds are impressive. This is a truly important work of historical research — but an apolitical one.
I get why Peter Jackson only focused on the British perspective of WWI. In a short film it's impossible to cover every angle. But this is unfortunate because it misleadingly depicts WWI (a pointless inter-imperialist war) as a mere prelude to WWII (a necessary anti-fascist war).
History alters the way we think of prior events. WWII will forever change the way WWI is seen. But WWI was not a mere prelude to WWII—it was a war over colonies. And in fact in many ways WWI is one of the main reasons the Nazis and Italian Fascists rose to power and started WWII.
They Shall Not Grow Old does not provide any historical context. Nor does it acknowledge the massive resistance movements against the mass slaughter of WWI, and the leftist antiwar heroes who were imprisoned and killed for trying to stop it (and the Bolsheviks who did stop it).
In fact, in the extra 30-minute making-of documentary following the movie, Peter Jackson said what he wanted viewers to take away, above all, was to learn how WWI impacted their families. Not that war is evil and should be prevented! Again, he intentionally depoliticized the war!
Perhaps none of this should be surprising considering They Shall Not Grow Old was commissioned by the appropriately named Imperial War Museum, along with the BBC and 14-18 NOW. And these institutions are certainly not invested in pushing an anti-war message.
But it's utterly unconscionable to make a movie—especially one that took four years—that shows the horrors of a war but doesn't also actively warn against future wars. This approach normalizes the false myth that WWI was bad but necessary (you can't be neutral on a moving train).
This is a textbook example of the bourgeois centrist slogan "Don't politicize tragedies." World War I, like all wars, was not just a tragedy; it was a political crime carried out by multiple countries' ruling classes, who sent poor people to die so they could expand their wealth.
War is not and can never be apolitical. War is the epitome of politics, the continuation of politics by other means.
Anyone—filmmakers, journalists, writers—who tries to portray a war apolitically is doing a disservice to the victims of not just that war but all future ones too.
Anyone—filmmakers, journalists, writers—who tries to portray a war apolitically is doing a disservice to the victims of not just that war but all future ones too.
