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WWII In Color

WWII In Color

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent combat footage
Review: As the other two reviews on this page attest, this is a well-produced documentary that will be enyoyed by anyone interested in World War II. The home movies of Hitler taken by Eva Braun at Berchtesgaden are paticularly interesting. Although the material on the cover indicates that the colors have been restored, that task has been performed so professionally as to not be noticeable.

Perhaps because the program is relatively short (two 48-min. tapes), it provides very little analysis of the war or the events leading up to it. It is simply action -- lots of it and in color. Highly recommended.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The footage is spectacular, the packaging of it isn't
Review: I had expected long, raw, and uncut footage that would speak for itself, but found little of that here; "In Color" is perhaps something more appropriate for a high school history class.

First, insightful and fascinating footage is cut so that most segments last no longer than a few seconds. (Was this done to cram as much as possible into two 45-min. tapes?) I would have preferred more depth, less breadth; the edits are distracting.

Second, these brief segments are strung together almost willy-nilly to flush out an uninspiring, sometimes patronizing narration (complete with a music score to let us know that what we're seeing is grave and important). The footage is fascinating enough to stand on its own, without sophomoric narration and certainly without background music and retro-fitted sound effects.

Third, the film is rather sanitized. We see dead German and Japanese soldiers (burnt, putrescent, etc.) up close, but American ones (intact and with no visible wounds) from a distance. The soldiers shown are either alive or dead; there's almost no footage of anyone dying. I mention this not because I enjoy seeing death, but because I bought "In Color" expecting to see a head-on, unflinching picture of war--the heroic and the brutal, the banal and the terrifying.

(Also, having seen ABC TV's recent "Shooting War" documentary, which used some of the same footage, I can see how much potentially "troubling" material has been left out. For example, "Shooting War" showed a Japanese woman, evidently terrified by the approaching American Marines, throw her infant off a cliff and into the surf and rocks below, just before she herself jumps. In this film, the segment involving the infant is cut; we see only the woman jumping.)

So should you buy it? Well, yes. If you're looking for a brief chronology of important battles in World War II, a chronology that uses actual footage, you will not be disappointed. And if you're looking for more than that--well, all the above gripes notwithstanding, buy it anyway. Just watch it with the sound off.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I have seen many documentries on WWII. Most of those in black and white. This surpasses much of the footage I have seen. Finally being able to see it in color adds a whole new dimension on the war. It makes you realize that this war was fought not that long ago, and the people who fought it, either at the front lines or on the home front are still alive today. I am very glad to see it the way they saw it, raw and brutal and yet they are shown in alot of the footage with high spirits. The footage of the poor Japanese lady and the cliff in the Saipan chapter will always haunt me. This is the way war really is, and should be seen to fully understand its impact on those who fought it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: I have seen many documentries on WWII. Most of those in black and white. This surpasses much of the footage I have seen. Finally being able to see it in color adds a whole new dimension on the war. It makes you realize that this war was fought not that long ago, and the people who fought it, either at the front lines or on the home front are still alive today. I am very glad to see it the way they saw it, raw and brutal and yet they are shown in alot of the footage with high spirits. The footage of the poor Japanese lady and the cliff in the Saipan chapter will always haunt me. This is the way war really is, and should be seen to fully understand its impact on those who fought it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Video Material
Review: I now have both this DVD, and the "WWII: The Lost Color Archives" (LCA) and they are both superb. This one is a bit cheaper than TLCA but it complements it quite well, as it has far more coverage of the Pacific Theatre as well as European material not seen on TLCA.

This is a bit more graphic than TLCA, but it shows some incredible battle scenes in both N.Africa and Europe that are incredible! It makes you wonder how did the cameraman survive being right there in the middle of the battle, with tanks rolling around him (her?) and machine gun fire only a few feet away. The bombing runs of the Memphis Belle, from the perspective of those flying, are also here in spectacular fashion. The scenes of the gunners firing away at incoming fighters are truly exceptional.

Though I would rate this a very tiny bit below TLCA, it is definitely worth getting, and is highly recommended. A must buy for the WWII enthusiast and/or historian.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Video Material
Review: I now have both this DVD, and the "WWII: The Lost Color Archives" (LCA) and they are both superb. This one is a bit cheaper than TLCA but it complements it quite well, as it has far more coverage of the Pacific Theatre as well as European material not seen on TLCA.

This is a bit more graphic than TLCA, but it shows some incredible battle scenes in both N.Africa and Europe that are incredible! It makes you wonder how did the cameraman survive being right there in the middle of the battle, with tanks rolling around him (her?) and machine gun fire only a few feet away. The bombing runs of the Memphis Belle, from the perspective of those flying, are also here in spectacular fashion. The scenes of the gunners firing away at incoming fighters are truly exceptional.

Though I would rate this a very tiny bit below TLCA, it is definitely worth getting, and is highly recommended. A must buy for the WWII enthusiast and/or historian.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I purchased this DVD today and found footage that just has to be seen. There are things I've only pictured that are justthrown point-blank at you, and in color. Sometimes, it seems there are areas not as well depicted, but I guess they just didn't have/couldn't get enough footage of those particular events, thus creating the AIrcraft Carrier segment to show off what they could get... I'm not sure why, but seeing these things in color just makes it far more powerful sometimes.
I definitely think this is a great deal.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Well Done, But..
Review: I purchased this video for my father, who is a WWII Navy and Air Force Veteran. It is good, the color certainly makes it more watchable, but somehow it missed hardly, if any mention of the Leyte Bay/Gulf battle. The Battle for Leyte Gulf has been characterized by Samuel E. Morison(in 1958) as "the greatest naval battle of all time". The amphibious invasion of Leyte Gulf in October,1944, assembled the largest number of ships(over 700) to that date. I am not attempting to write any history here, just wondering why the largest sea battle in "history" was basically forgotten in this video? Possibly to sell another, separate video? The Leyte Gulf video has been produced, but to basically exclude Leyte Gulf actions from a "WWII IN COLOR" video, seems a bit .... A few less pictures of Hitler, and a little more about the largest sea battle of WWII, would help the video provide those of us with parents who survivied WWII with a better perspective of the War.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: O.K. By me
Review: I thought it was worth the money and believe me, I've seen a few that weren't worth it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: O.K. By me
Review: I thought it was worth the money and believe me, I've seen a few that weren't worth it.


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