WWII in HD

WWII in HD Review

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I never thought I'd see something that would challenge the 1974, 26-part BBC production "The World At War" The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition) as a documentary but this 10-part documentary does that and it's a high definition remake of thousands of hours of film, most in color and most never before broadcast to the public.

From the earliest days of the war -- the 1930s in both Europe and Asia -- to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in Buchenwald, "World War II in HD" captures many of the most important battles and turning points of the war, all told in first person narrative from people that actually fought in war or covered it as war correspondents. This includes interviews with surviving veterans made in 2008-09 with people now more than 80 years of age.

Personally, this documentary struck a chord with me in one of the earlier hours on the battle of Tarawa, an archipelago of small islands in the Pacific that was a stepping stone to Japan and an important air base. My dad fought at Tarawa; he told me the four-day battle resulted in 6,000 deaths, 5,000 of which were Japanese. "We buried the Americans in graves and dug trenches for the Japs," dad told me.

The battle footage and narrative on Tarawa pretty much mimicked what dad told me only in much greater detail. It also mentions John Huston's 1944 documentary made on the American fight Marines At Tarawa (1945) that brought the war home to the public. "We wanted people to know we don't knock hell out of them every day," a voiceover says during the documentary about the battle and documentary that won the 1945 Oscar for short documentary.

And that's just one half-hour slice of this magnificent series. It tackles many of the important Pacific and European battles including Guadalcanal, Battle of the Bulge, Okinawa and the fight Americans had with the Japanese on American soil at Attu in Alaska's Aleutian islands. Every aspect of the war, from North Africa to bomber runs in Europe to nurses' roles in the Pacific, to the American depature and return to Bataan, the Tuksegee airmen, to FDR's death, the concentration camps, the Americans meeting the Russians in Berlin, and the atomic bombs in Japan, is covered in some detail with actual war footage you've probably never seen unless you saw it first on The History Channel.

The quality of the filmmaking, the restoration of the home movies to HD, and the scripting of individual voiceovers (sometimes by stars like Rob Lowe with a special plaudit to narrator Gary Sinise) from the real-life warriors is uniformly magnificent. Never does this film lag in one minute of its 10 hours. This is one of the most important World War II releases since "The World At War" and is is surely an instant classic of World War II storytelling. No fan of history should go without seeing this. Buy it for Christmas, either for yourself or for someone else.

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WWII in HD Feature

WWII in HD Overview

The only people to see the war like this were the ones who lived it. Until now…

Seventy years in the making. Three thousand hours of color footage no one knew existed. The first documentary to show World War II from the perspective of both sides in full, immersive HD color, the world premiere HISTORY series WWII in HD uses the diaries of soldiers who fought in the war’s biggest battles to create a personal, introspective and detailed look at life on and off the front lines. Though it was illegal for U.S. soldiers to carry diaries, many hid them away in their packs and recorded their experiences in detail.

Now, through the use of these diaries and other source documents, as well as HD color and on-location shooting around the world, WWII in HD transforms their journey into a tangible piece of history. Culled from rare color archival footage from an exhaustive 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.

WWII in HD Specifications

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Why can't history classes be this interesting? - Keeva Cox - Dallas, TX USA
This entire series is masterfully done! Instead of a bunch of facts and figures delivered by the usual talking heads often seen in documentaries, this series focuses on 12 individuals that were on the front lines during the war. The battles of WWII are told in their own words, through their letters, reports, and interviews, making the entire documentary intensely personal. The narration provided by Gary Sinise seamlessly intertwines the personal accounts with the facts of the battles and strategies used, giving the viewer all of the background information they need to understand what's going on without being the least bit intrusive. The added backdrop of the never-before-seen color WWII footage of the events really makes it seem as if the viewer is right in the middle of the action; watching and experiencing everything for themselves. History teachers and textbook authors take note: this is how history should be taught!


Young people: You're scared of terrorists? Not after watching this... - David Vega - Arizona
This is the greatest documentary about the greatest story ever told. We think we are scared of terrorists....give me a break....terrorists are pimples on our posteriors compared to the fear the Nazis and Japs put the world through. Not only is this documentary visually breathtaking, but the meticulous research of each of the stories, the strategies of the war, and the perspective it gives the viewer is like nothing I've ever seen before. It truly proves that they were the greatest generation, the generation we should all strive to be. This documentary should be in every school...let the teacher close the book and pop this in as a history lesson because it can not be told better than this. I can't say enough about it. Jack Yusen was the best! "He went to go see his muddah on the back porch!"