WWII in HD [Blu-ray]

Product Description

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 / Day of Days

DISC 2: Point of No Return / Striking Distance / Glory and Guts / Edge of the Abyss / End Game / Bonus

Special Features

• Character Profiles
• Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes - Finding the Footage
• Preserving the Footage

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 Nagasaki. 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 Tregaskis, 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)