Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3231 in DVD
• Brand: A&E HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2010-01-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Color, Widescreen, DTS Surround Sound
• Original language: English
• Running time: 470 minutes

Amazon.com
At first glance, the very concept of WWII in HD seems like an oxymoron. After all, isn't the footage from back then nothing more than grainy black-and-white newsreel? And really, how much definition can be added to film that was shot more than 60 years ago? The answers: no, and quite a lot, actually. The quality of much of what is seen in the course of these 10 episodes (each around 45 minutes long) is surprisingly good. Add to that the fact that most of it is in color (not colorized, but originally recorded in that medium, some at the behest of the United States government), and the result is nothing short of astonishing. It's not easy viewing; there are sequences that are shockingly graphic (vivid examples include the carnage on view after major battles and the shots of Japanese civilians on the Pacific island of Saipan hurling themselves off cliffs to avoid capture by American troops). But all of it has been put to good use in what is undoubtedly one of the most compelling accounts of World War II ever produced.

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)

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Customer Reviews

Moves to the top of the list of World War II documentaries
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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One of the best WWII documentaries
I have watched this series on the History channel and it is unbelievable. Although very graphic at times, the color footage is extrordinary and the comments by the veterans add a new dimension and at times will break your heart. Of all the WWII series I have seen this probably the best overall. The History channel has done a great job. I just wish the DVD was available right now. If you are at all interested in this part of US history or had a relative or friend who served in this war, you will want to get this series.

One of the best WWII mini-series ever
This came in a very close second in my favorite mini-series ever. Right behind Band of Brothers. Even though this series was different from B.o.B (being that the whole series was actual footage from WWII and not acting), it was still an amazing show to watch. Real footage from the war and interviews from actual soldiers that were in the war was perfect. Some of the video was graphic, but that made it real and worth watching. I rarely get teary eyed, but some of those interviews and some of the concentration camp footage, got to me. After seeing the first part, it makes you want to see more. And the other 9 parts of the series certainly delivered. I would highly recommend this to any World War buffs or to anyone who wants to see how much our veterans went through.