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  | World War II - The Lost Color Archives
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Average user rating:  | ||||||
 the lost archives appear to be still lost | ||||||
| The footage in this film is fantastic but in no way whatsoever does justice to what the individuals who participated in the war experienced. Unlike the Land of the Czars or other films produced this production does not provide enough detail for any of the events listed in the contents. It is almost like fast forwarding through the war. There is no way i would subject my students to this film. I would be boring them to death and I would here about it. The purchase of this dvd was a total waste of money. I would sooner use many of the dusty copies in our library. pjk | ||||||
| My comment | ||||||
| It is fascinating and exciting to see World War II not in black and white, as we are used to seeing it, but in color. Its kind of like how it was for theater audiences of the day. Most movies of the day were in black and white, but those that were in Technicolor were absolutely stunning, and still are. Unfortunately, that's what the problem with these tapes are. Even though the colors are realistic, the picture is quite grainy and the image suffers from poor contrast, muddy blacks and blurred colors; it is very slow and sometimes fringing becomes apparent. The reason for this was because it was shot on nonprofessional 16mm film, separated into negatives and then blown up onto 35mm. The best examples of color film remain the old Technicolor movies from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, not Kodachrome films like these. Unfortunately, we can't see World War II in Technicolor, because it would have been way too expensive and out of bounds to shoot in it, but nevertheless the picture would have been much better. | ||||||
 Very Good Documentary Even if it Were Not in Color | ||||||
| Apart from the obvious important issue of color, "Lost Color Archives" is different from many other documentaries dealing with World War II. The emphasis is much less on causes and facts than it is on the impact of the war on society and individuals. Its use of personal observances is remeniscent of the way Ken Burns used eye witness accounts in "The Civil War" to make more of an impact on the viewer. Evenso, from a historical perspective, "Lost Color Archives" does deserve high praise as a solid explanation of the war as a whole. Because it is told largely from the eye witness point of view, the viewer has a sense of the impending conflict, then the endurance through the war, and finally, the exhausted conclusion. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the war was over, but that much of the world had been destroyed and that the effects and rememberance of the war would linger on. Add color to all this and the documentary clearly stands above anything else I've ever seen about the war. Some of the images are average, some are stunning, some are beautiful, some are horrifying, but all are in color. The combination of the color video and the first person narratives often sent chills down my spine. | ||||||
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