World War II in Colour

A cursory review of a series which is quite the opposite; WWII In Color is an awe-inspiring look into the second world war which provides the viewer with a comprehensive understanding of the events of WWII through narration and colorized video. This series ― narrated by Robert Powell ― covers the entirety of WWII from precursory events which would kick-start the war, to Japan's surrender and the beginning of the Cold War. In an already academically intense genre, World War II in HD Color not only meets high expectations, but exceeds them entirely. Easy to pick up, this well-researched series condenses the war into a few episode's worth of educational content. Robert Powell's delivery in narrating vital moments in the war is perfectly done as his talent shows in such a way that the viewer will surely feel the emotion behind each and every catastrophic event. Furthermore, the footage is truly moving accompanied by the expert narration which includes: devastating footage of a holocaust concentration camp, adrenaline-filled battles, convening of world leaders and more, accompanied by geographic animations, the colorized footage is sure to leave an impact. In essence, this 5 star, extremely detailed and historically accurate series will ensure you come away with nothing less than a complete understanding of many events in the Eastern and Western Fronts, the North African Campaign, and the Pacific War via colorized video and emotionally moving narration.

Some of the footage looks anachronistic to me, with one shot of fighters inappropriately in NATO pattern or Chinese helmets. Some supposed US soldiers fighting in undergrowth look more like NVA or Viet Cong as well. Some of the colourisation is suspect, with oddly bright green Sherman tanks, Waffen SS soldiers in green, rather than grey uniforms, and Corsairs and Hellcats being launched from US carriers in the Pacific coloured green instead of blue. There's also some mixed footage, with one shot of Russian T34s in a North African tank battle! These errors form a very brief element in the presentation, and though they grate a little, don't prevent this being an interesting brief history of WWII. Not a patch on The World At War, though, IMHO.

Recently I watched this documentary series about World War II in (HD) color on Netflix and really liked it. In 14 episodes you get to see a well documented overview of WW2, starting with the events leading up to WW2 in both Europe and Sout-East Asia, the beginning stages with the fast advances both Germany and Italy made in Europe, and Japan in Asia, the mistakes made by the aggressors, the fighting back by the allied forces on different theatres, and ultimately the victories over Germany , Italy and Japan.

The interesting part about this series is that the original black & white footage has been coloured by advanced colouring techniques. While you can occasionally spot the clearly artificial colouring, most of the times it is unobtrusive and hardly noticeable. Watching these scenes in colour definitely add an aspect of realism to them, compared to the same scenes in black & white.

There are many documentaries about World War II, and this documentary deserves a good place between them.

The color process is both fantastic and jarring in bringing the our eyes old events that come back to life in a way that is emotional and very real. The old black and white films were like watching old history about a far past, but the color of the war film changes to feeling from memory to seeing moments in a new mind frame about that mentally sees the conflict in modern terms to appreciate and emotionally see and feel the events.

The video quality has been brought up to a near 1970's quality and after a while you start taking it for granted.

This is an educational series with narration all the way through, in near chronological order with clear maps showing how the front line of the battles moved around europe, Africa and asia.

There has been unfair reviews saying that the series favours the British efforts of the war and perhaps it does as the series was probably compiled in Britain. You have to remember though that they are only covering the footage that they have from the war and Britain was fighting the war in Europe single handedly for a couple of years, whilst fighting in Africa and Asia. The red army probably played a bigger part towards defeating Germany and to be fair this series does cover this quite well in 2 whole episodes.

History buffs will enjoy the footage but criticise small details that are incorrect. However, if you have limited knowledge of the war and the order of some of the main events then this is a good place to start to understand the history.