Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old

I've been a Peter Jackson fan since Heavenly Creatures (which is far underrated), not to  mention his work on bringing Tolkien's oeuvre to life, so I was curious about his new documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, which I watched a few weeks ago. The title comes from the 1914 poem, "For the Fallen," by the Great War poet, Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943). The fourth stanza reads:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The movie displays a kind of genius for rendering that time period, imbuing it with reality. They used not only actual archival footage throughout but also voices from those who fought, sharing their experiences. There is embellishment where the filmmakers made the silent footage come to life once they reach the war front. It is like the famous shift in The Wizard of Oz (1939) from black and white to color. The war becomes more visceral.

The perspectives of that era are rather shocking--their initial zeal to fight and the ambivalent reception of soldiers marching home afterwards. You can see how this lead to the subsequent anti-war attitudes later.

My complaint is that there is no break. The voices are non-stop. Given no breathers, the film becomes a marathon. Silence in a movie is like white space in a poem: It gives the person time to soak in what's been said. Plus it allows emphasis. I thought of simple solutions like title cards or voice-overs, explaining the war. But really silencing the voices could itself be the only markers needed.

I do recommend the movie, but it may be more effective at home where you can introduce your own silences.

ETA: Here are some color, non-colorized photos of the same era. They might surprise you. At least they did me.