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| THEY FILMED THE WAR IN COLOR |
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| Featuring: André Dussollier, Geoffrey Bateman, Joan Bennett, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford |
| Director: René-Jean Bouyer |
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Distributor: Koch Vision |
| DVD release: 13 May 2008 |
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Runtime: 88 min. (1 disc) |
| Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC |
| DVD Features: Audio tracks (Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 - English) |
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It may be surprising to some that there actually is a fair amount of color footage of World War II. To those who've spent more time on the History Channel than any other, it's not news. From a historical perspective, it seems a bit myopic to tell the whole tale of the Big War with only color film. This leaves a lot of areas unexplored. I know there are people out there who prefer to see Shirley Temple in computer-colored faux glory, and perhaps this film will introduce them to a world they've never paid much attention to.
They Filmed the War in Color is broken down into two DVDs: Victory in Europe and The Pacific War. They seem to be very different conflicts, both in how the landscapes were colored and the enemies we fought.
This is not a bad retelling, but perhaps a bit too limited in scope. When you're talking WWII, it's possible to cast a very wide net and still not get it all. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about They Filmed the War in Color is the post- war footage in Japan. It's the norm to see the mushroom clouds at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then cut directly to footage of soldiers stealing kisses in Times Square.
It's a nice set, but I'm dubious of using the hook of color film to draw interest. As far as I know, nobody's given the Shirley Temple computer-colorization treatment to any of the black and white footage of the war. Let's hope they keep it that way.
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