By Ebeth (Ebeth) (199.174.65.27) on Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 05:20 pm:| By Ebeth (Ebeth) (199.174.65.27) on Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 05:20 pm: |
For anyone who subscribes to the History Channel, they have been showing a series called "The Color of War". The show is a terrific look at what life was like for the soldiers, with amazing color footage from the combat cameramen. It has been on Sundays at 8pm, although I'm unsure when they'll be showing the next set of repeats. The following is the description from the History Channel, which also sells the collection- although $99 for VHS tapes seems a bit steep.
"The story of World War II has been told many times, but never like this. THE COLOR OF WAR combines color film and photos taken from government archives and private collections--much of which has never been seen by the public before--with first-person commentary from the combatants and the photographers who documented the struggle.
Each episode in this epic collection focuses on a different aspect of the war, from pivotal battles to the struggles of first-time soldiers to adapt to life on the front. Illuminating the footage is a vast array of letters and diaries, communiques from the battlefield, and period music and sounds of the era, combining to create a powerful, intimate and unique look at the Second World War." The thirteen programs included (on six cassettes) are:
Into the Breach
Face to Face
Air War
Battleground
At Ease
Anchors Aweigh
Why We Fight
Fueling the Fire
Silent and Deep
Homefront
The Price of War
Victory
Aftermath
The link for the above tapes is:
http://store.aetv.com/html/catalog/vp01.jhtml?id=43316&browseCategoryId=10001
| By Marc Brand (Marcfire) (194.138.137.11) on Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 07:17 am: |
Hi,
Last year 'The Color of War' was shown on Dutch TV. There were three episodes of one hour, you mention 13 programs. Are these 13 also one hour programs? If so, then i'll try to find out why they did not show it all in Holland.
I have so many WWII books and video's, but the one thing missing was real life footage in color. Due to 'The Color of War' i finally know what things really looked like during WWII. Together with films like Private Ryan and the series BoB, the color of war really makes you feel the emotions of a war.
Marc
| By Ebeth (Ebeth) (199.174.65.27) on Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 01:04 pm: |
Marc-
All thirteen are one hour episodes. I don't know why they wouldn't have shown all 13 in Holland. They air them repeatedly here on the History Channel- the trick is finding out when they're scheduled to be on.
| By Marc Brand (Marcfire) (194.138.137.11) on Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 02:54 pm: |
Well, they tricked us big time too. I'm going to find out what happenend here. RTL4, the channel that broadcasted it will have to tell me.
Marc
| By Ebeth (Ebeth) (199.174.65.27) on Tuesday, November 05, 2002 - 03:56 pm: |
The History Channel apparently is showing only one episode of The Color of War per month, as the following is the only listing for November. This episode is a fascinating look at the logistics of supplying troops in combat though.
The Color of War
Sunday , November 17 8:00 PM-9:00 PM
Monday, November 18 12:00 AM-1:00 AM
"Fueling the Fire"
During WWII, the leaders of the U.S. military challenged themselves to create the most advanced supply system in the history of warfare. The servicemen who fought the supply war played a critical, and under-appreciated, role in achieving victory. Without them the Allied war machine would have ground to a halt. Peter Coyote narrates this compelling journey into WWII through the eyes of those who lived it, using color film and photographs unearthed from archives and personal collections. TV PG
| By Michael Wisotzkey (Afireinside) (24.171.107.160) on Tuesday, December 24, 2002 - 06:31 pm: |
Color of War is pretty good.
| By David Jackson (Davej) (62.252.224.5) on Sunday, January 05, 2003 - 06:51 am: |
The BBC has just repeated over Xmas "The World At War"....a stunning 25(?) part series first shown in 1973.
It comprised B/W and colour footage from WW2, some of it very harrowing, from Hitler's rise to power, through D-Day and on past Nuremburg. It was superbly narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier.
A long-haired Stephen Ambrose appeared in the penultimate episode, talking about how countries adapted to life after the war.
If it is ever shown in your country, do not miss it.
| By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.208.70) on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 05:42 am: |
i watched it on the Beeb...(which, thank god, we can receive over here as well!)...great series, very impressive!
irene
| By Ebeth (Ebeth) (199.174.65.27) on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 12:26 pm: |
New WWII Documentary
"The Perilous Fight: America's World War Two in Color"
A view of WWII, in full color
By Debra Kaufman, Special to The Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2003
The flag-raising on Iwo Jima, soldiers streaming ashore at Normandy Beach on D-Day, Adolph Hitler reviewing his goose-stepping army: All are iconic images from WWII, engraved in our collective national memory in grainy black and white.
But our view of the conflicts from the first half of the last century is about to undergo a dramatic, chromatic reconception. The next two Wednesdays, KCET is airing a four-part documentary series, "The Perilous Fight: America's World War Two in Color," that allows viewers to see the war in a full rainbow of hues.
Made up of original footage, much of it the home movie variety, the series starts with a 1919 parade in Paris celebrating victory in World War I and ends with jubilant crowds thronging Manhattan streets at the end of World War II. Altogether, it provides views of World War II that few besides those who actually fought have ever seen.
"Black and white puts distance between the viewer and the screen," says cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who filmed "Saving Private Ryan." "It feels like you're watching events that happened a long, long time ago. In color, it looks immediate. It looks real."
The co-production, by Britain's TWI/Carlton TV with Seattle PBS station KCTS, has been years in the making, as series producer Martin Smith and archive film producer Adrian Wood, with KCTS' in-house research team, engaged in a worldwide scavenger hunt for color footage that took them from the locked archives of the Soviet Union to a dumpster in Long Beach.
Narrated by Martin Sheen, "The Perilous Fight" features footage shot by such Hollywood luminaries as John Ford, Frank Capra and George Stevens, who served in the Armed Forces during the Second World War and who, according to UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV professor Jonathan Kuntz, had their first opportunities to photograph in color then. The series also features the work of dozens of anonymous battlefield cinematographers and other people.
Inspired by Ken Burns' "Civil War" series and HBO's "Dear America: Letters from Vietnam," the filmmakers sought film footage, photos and documents of ordinary Americans, putting out the call through veterans' organizations, computer lists and letter-writing campaigns.
More than 60 small film archives and history museums across the United States answered the call with small amounts of color footage and personal documents.
One great find was the immense film archive of Francis Line, a wealthy Southern Californian who, as a hobby, filmed travelogues of American and Asian life in the 1930s. His footage was rescued from a dumpster by an antiques dealer and later purchased by Long Beach videographers Grace McKay and Emmett Kesel. Kuntz says that "ironically, by the late 1930s, amateurs were using color film even more freely than Hollywood."
Film archive researcher Wood, inspired by viewing the 1974 TV documentary series "The World at War," which featured a small amount of color footage, kept his eyes open for color footage as he made research trips around the globe. One late 1980s trip, to a previously off-limits Soviet film archive, revealed WWII footage shot with a three-strip color system similar to Technicolor.
Eventually, Wood realized that he'd found enough unseen footage of the war to make an entire documentary in color, an idea he initially developed with TWI executive producer Stewart Binns. Later visits to the National Archive and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., uncovered another treasure trove of color footage. "The NARA is America's cultural patrimony," enthuses Wood. "It's a marvelous institution and, without question, one of the largest and most successful archive footage resources in the world."
For WWII veterans, the documentary series may revive old memories. For the rest of us, seeing "The Perilous Fight's" color footage will make the realities of WWII more vivid and -- especially for the younger generation -- close the gap between more recent wars and this historic conflict.
"Sixty years later, this will add a whole new viewpoint on the war for people today," UCLA's Kuntz says. "This footage could have a tremendous impact on viewers."
"For the younger generation, this is a war of the past," Kaminski says. "If they see it in color, the significance and the horror of war will become much more immediate."
| By Ebeth (Ebeth) (199.174.65.27) on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 12:30 pm: |
Disregard the double-post. Sorry!