World War II in Colour (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: -
	Actors: -
	Country: GB
	Genre: Documentary, War
	Conditions of visioning: April 2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: From the events leading up to WWII to its grim ending, a series spanning the events of that time period, supported by colorized footage.
Review: The Documentary Bombing War gave me enough motivation to watch this 13-part, 9-hour long mini-series. I have always wanted to get an overview of WWII's unfolding, in order to refresh my memory and fill in the gaps of my education, characteristically too limited to the French side of things. I recently watched the 2-part Youtube video called WWII oversimplified, but that's pretty short and has a humoristic tone which is not bad in itself. I am pretty sure I could have read an excellent book on the topic but well, watching it on a screen is easier and I am lazy. Also, a book could have told the facts as well as the series, but footage from the time of the conflict is something that would give an extra-depth to simple facts. At least this is what I thought. The American full title of the series is World War II in HD Colour. HD is totally useless as 99.9 % of the footage shown doesn't have the quality necessary to benefit from such a format. I have discussed the merits of added color and sound effects in my review of Bombing War. I had the same feeling when watching this series, but unfortunately the length of it makes that I started to notice how repetitive were the sounds (most of all), images and colors. Doing a little research on the colorization process shows that this is still a partly manual process and the variety and veracity of colors is only as good as the time the artist spend working on it. Indeed often the tanks for example were of a boring green for the armor, brown for the wheels... And towards the end one can immediately tell when some footage is in original color. I would say that color does bring something in certain shots, like I remember the ones of Hitler's face where you can look in his eyes and try to decipher what went on in there, but it is not breathtaking. What is shocking however is how much of that War was documented and how many cameramen were present on the front lines! This realization led me to discover the story of the Hollywood filmmakers that enlisted in the armed forces to document WWII, narrated in the Documentary miniseries Five Came Back that I may soon watch. So the gimmick of color attracted me to the series but I stayed for something else: simply the efficient delivery of an overview on WWII like I was expecting to get. More than a chronological story-telling, the series cleverly cuts its 13 episodes in more themes, as can be told from their titles repeated here below: S1E1: The Gathering Storm S1E2: Lightning War S1E3: Britain at Bay S1E4: Hitler Strikes East S1E5: Red Sun Rampant S1E6: The Mediterranean and North Africa S1E7: Turning the Tide S1E8: The Soviet Steamroller S1E9: Overlord S1E10: Closing the Ring S1E11: The Island War S1E12: Victory in Europe S1E13: Victory in the Pacific Thanks to the length and details of the series I could start to get really familiar with the places and look forward to a resolution to the conflict, although I knew how it would end. So that the last two episodes do feel like a good movie ending and reminded me, geek that I am, of the last scene in Return of the Jedi when the Empire is defeated. Except that it took place for real. The aftermath, division of Europe and the prospect of the Cold War however keeps one humble at the end. Finally I would say that what fails in the series is a more human and emotional approach, taking more time but not permitted by the vastness of the topic to cover. Then I realized that to get this aspect, one should rather turn to cinematographic dramatization of that time period with for example Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, The Pianist to quote only a few American productions, or heroisation (I know that's not a word) with movies like The Longest Day, Flags of our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima, A Bridge too Far (that I am now very tempted to watch after they say its title in the Documentary), Das Boot, Dunkirk...
Rating: 6 /10