Product Description
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Product Description
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Seventy years in the making. Three thousand hours of color
footage few knew existed. The first documentary to show original
color footage of World War II in immersive HD, the world premiere
HISTORYTM series WWII IN HD uses the journals and accounts of
those who served in the war s biggest battles to create a
personal, introspective and detailed look at life on and off the
front lines. Follow 12 unforgettable Americans, and experience
the war through their eyes, in their own words, as it really
looked and sounded. WWII IN HD transforms their stirring journey
into a tangible piece of history. Culled from rare color film
found in a two-year worldwide search and converted to HD with
meticulous technique, WWII IN HD provides a picture of World War
II as it has never been seen before.
DISC 1: Darkness Falls / Hard Way Back / Bloody Resolve / Battle
Stations
DISC 2: Day of Days / Point of No Return / Striking Distance /
Glory and Guts
DISC 3: Edge of the Abyss / End Game / Bonus
Discler - Program and mastered in High Definition.
Presented on standard definition DVD that will play in any
standard definition DVD Player
Special Features
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* Character Profiles
* Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes - Finding the Footage
* Preserving the Footage
.com
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At first glance, the very concept of WWII in HD seems
like an oxymoron. After all, isn't the footage from back then
nothing more than grainy black-and-white newsreel? And really,
how much definition can be added to film that was more than
60 years ago? The answers: no, and quite a lot, actually. The
quality of much of what is seen in the course of these 10
episodes (each around 45 minutes long) is surprisingly good. Add
to that the fact that most of it is in color (not colorized, but
originally recorded in that medium, some at the behest of the
United States government), and the result is nothing short of
astonishing. It's not easy viewing; there are sequences that are
shockingly graphic (vivid examples include the carnage on view
after major battles and the s of Japanese civilians on the
Pacific island of Saipan hurling themselves off cliffs to avoid
capture by American troops). But all of it has been put to good
use in what is undoubtedly one of the most compelling accounts of
World War II ever produced.
Other documentaries have chronicled the same events seen here,
from the earliest days of the war (when Hitler was overrunning
Europe and the ill-prepared Americans were still years away from
becoming involved), through Pearl Harbor, the major
confrontations with the Japanese in the Pacific theater (like
Guadalcanal, Tarawa, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the
incomparably bloody Iwo Jima) and with the Germans in Europe and
North Africa (the invasion of Tunisia, D-day, the Battle of the
Bulge), and straight on to victory in Europe and finally the
Japanese surrender after Hiroshima and Naaki. But what
separates WWII in HD is the filmmakers' decision to view these
events through the experiences of a dozen individuals who were
actually there, including a couple of war correspondents (one of
whom, Richard Trekis, was the author of the seminal
Guadalcanal Diary); an Austrian immigrant who escaped the Nazis
and almost immediately enlisted in the U.S. Army; a nurse with
General George Patton's Third Army; an African-American pilot who
was one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen; a Japanese-American medic
who fought heroically while his family was held in an internment
camp; and others from the rank and file. All of them are voiced
by such actors as Rob Lowe, Amy Smart, Steve Zahn, Josh Lucas,
and LL Cool J; and with Gary Sinise providing voice-over
narration, the whole piece comes off as a dramatic film as much
as a straight documentary (an effect also enhanced by some
brilliantly creative juxtapositions of words, images, and music).
Not all of these men and women made it through the war (those
still alive also appear in on-camera interviews), but none could
ever forget the horrors they witnessed, and while those of us who
did not serve will never really comprehend the sacrifices they
made, this remarkable program may be as close as we can get.
--Sam Graham
Stills from WWII in HD (Click for larger image)
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Review
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dramatic images so crystalline as to appear surreal
--Los Angeles Times
fresh edge and excitement through newly restoried color
footage...vivid rush of images --People Magazine
extraordinary visual record that should not be missed
--Multichannel News
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