[mips_avatar]

Peter Jackson addressed the ethics of colorization in the behind the scenes extra after the credits. He believed that the original camera men wanted to get the most accurate picture of the front lines. However color cameras and steady frame rate capable cameras were not available. He believed the artists would have picked better cameras if they were available so he wasn't violating the vision of the original people making the films

[yesenadam]

Sure, but the point is that the colours aren't real, isn't it?

It's like, say, a movie or novel based on a historical event we don't know much about - it may aid understanding of the event, but the details are made up. It's fictionalized, "based on a true story", and to present it as fact or as history would be misleading.

[mips_avatar]

I strongly recommend watching the behind the scenes extra with this film. Peter Jackson has this amazing personal collection of world war 1 stuff. Like the reason they knew what the uniforms color looked like was because peter Jackson has almost every type of uniform from world war 1. And the reason they knew how things like the wheels of the artillery sounded like was because peter Jackson has an extensive collection of world war 1 artillery. I’m sure it could have been better, but a lot of effort went into making this as close to life as is possible.

[yesenadam]

Sure, I haven't seen the movie. Sorry I didn't make it clearer - I was talking about what rfdearborn was saying more generally about colorizing, fakes, fabrication etc, not specifically Jackson or his movie at all.