Ww II:Color Archives: Amazon.ca: John Thaw, Eva Braun, Winston Churchill, Josef Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler, David Lloyd George, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin: DVD

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In the 1980s determined researchers began scouring the world for color film shot during World War II, and the result of their quest is spectacular. Seeing the war through the ubiquitous black-and-white footage has always made the experience somewhat distant, but in clear, crisp color, the enormity of the war and its horrors is startling and dramatic. Films of Nazi rallies are all the more disturbing; a viewer seeing the scene in color realizes the massive crowds saluting Hitler are no longer gray and faceless masses, but gatherings of well- dressed civilians. Color combat footage, from across Europe and the Pacific, is frighteningly immediate, and some of it, showing the wounded, the dead, and even prisoners being executed, will no doubt be disturbing for many viewers. Violence and destruction on an unimaginable scale is vividly put on display, as are smaller moments of soldiers smiling for the camera or liberated prisoners from the concentration camps staring in pained bewilderment. The episodes, produced by the History Channel, are introduced by veteran journalist Roger Mudd, and the narration for each individual segment typically contains excerpts from letters and diaries describing events close to those depicted in the film footage. The footage used is of a surprisingly high quality (much of it was shot and stored away, virtually unseen for decades), and it provides a stunning look at how the war appeared to those fighting it. --Robert J. McNamara

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18 Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Eerie, hypnotic, gut-wrenching, Nov 1 2000

By

bruce horner - See all my reviews

This review is from: WWII: The Lost Color Archives (VHS Tape)

This is an astonishing set of videos. First there is the jaw-dropping, almost hallucinogenic experiance of seeing WWII events in technicolor. It reminds one of how much black-and-white film aestheticizes and abstracts events. Admittedly our eyes don't see in technicolor either, but the color makes you feel far more psychologically "there" so to speak. The second thing is the amazing quality of most of this footage. It hardly seems to have aged at all in 55-60 years! When you consider that film from the 1960's sometimes looks atrociously degraded and washed out, the almost pristine look of this footage is remarkable to say the least. It must have been stored well and never projected. (Of course, the producers could choose the best-looking bits from what was reputedly hundreds of hours of rediscovered film.) Watching this film is a tremendously emotional experiance, sometimes frightening, sometimes grueling, sometimes stomach-turning. The voice-over narration makes heavy use of contemporary letters and diaries of soldiers and civilians, and is often touching. The cumulative impact of all this----the island fighting, Nazi rallies, shipyard workers, civilians hanged by Nazis, radiation victims, Pearl Harbor wreckage, air war footage, death camps, and on and on----is almost overwhelming. Like having your nose shoved into the sheer mess and folly of mass war.

Now that I hear that the UK version of this documentary was narrated by the redoubtable John Thaw I'd love to see THAT version, but otherwise I unreservedly recommend this to anyone and everyone. Too many people think of documentaries as boring but this demonstrates how mesmerizing they can be. For anyone too young to have first-hand memories of it (which is most of the population now) this makes WWII far more visceral than you ever thought possible.

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3.0 out of 5 stars My comment, Jan 10 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ww II:Color Archives (DVD)

It is fascinating and exciting to see World War II not in black and white, as we are used to seeing it, but in color. Its kind of like how it was for theater audiences of the day. Most movies of the day were in black and white, but those that were in Technicolor were absolutely stunning, and still are. Unfortunately, that's what the problem with these tapes are. Even though the colors are realistic, the picture is quite grainy and the image suffers from poor contrast, muddy blacks and blurred colors; it is very slow and sometimes fringing becomes apparent. The reason for this was because it was shot on nonprofessional 16mm film, separated into negatives and then blown up onto 35mm. The best examples of color film remain the old Technicolor movies from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, not Kodachrome films like these. Unfortunately, we can't see World War II in Technicolor, because it would have been way too expensive and out of bounds to shoot in it, but nevertheless the picture would have been much better.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Documentary Even if it Were Not in Color, Nov 7 2003

By

M. Anderson (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ww II:Color Archives (DVD)

Apart from the obvious important issue of color, "Lost Color Archives" is different from many other documentaries dealing with World War II. The emphasis is much less on causes and facts than it is on the impact of the war on society and individuals. Its use of personal observances is remeniscent of the way Ken Burns used eye witness accounts in "The Civil War" to make more of an impact on the viewer.

Evenso, from a historical perspective, "Lost Color Archives" does deserve high praise as a solid explanation of the war as a whole. Because it is told largely from the eye witness point of view, the viewer has a sense of the impending conflict, then the endurance through the war, and finally, the exhausted conclusion. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the war was over, but that much of the world had been destroyed and that the effects and rememberance of the war would linger on.

Add color to all this and the documentary clearly stands above anything else I've ever seen about the war. Some of the images are average, some are stunning, some are beautiful, some are horrifying, but all are in color.

The combination of the color video and the first person narratives often sent chills down my spine.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars the lost archives appear to be still lost
The footage in this film is fantastic but in no way whatsoever does justice to what the individuals who participated in the war experienced. Read more

Published on Feb 25 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Varying quality
A good overall look at the available color footage during the war. The commentary is quite good as well. Unfortunately, much of the footage is not as good as it could be. Read more