As seen on BBC2

Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) directed documentary about the British experience of World War 1.

The big deal is that he’s taken creaky black and white footage and colourised it and dubbed on recreated soundtracks (including dialogue identified by lip readers). The intention is to make the Charlie Chaplin figures of war documentaries come alive and feel less like old people from a very long ago time. The technique works and looks great (if a little 40s Technicolor) with only the very occasional odd looking moment (one man’s black hair looked like an oil slick). It achieves the desired effect and brings the footage to life with an immediacy that it previously lacked. A large portion at the start (circa half an hour) and a small section at the end (circa five minutes) are in black and white with maybe an hour in the middle made up of newly coloured material.

The soundtrack is made up of voiceovers by servicemen reminiscing about their experiences. I assume they were recorded several decades after the events described. These voiceovers dominate and we get very little of the newly dubbed soundtracks, but little is said by » Continue Reading.