D-Day: Normandy 1944 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

D-Day: Normandy 1944 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 11, 2020

Director Pascal Vuong is on hand in a supplement included with this release talking about how The Longest Day made an indelible impression upon him when he saw it on television as a child, and how once he found out there had never been a “large format” (i.e., IMAX) documentary about D-Day, he instantly knew what his “calling” was. However, the fact that there had never been such a documentary in this format might be for a good reason, or maybe good reasons: first, archival footage would probably be off the table, since it would look less than optimal on such a giant screen, but perhaps more importantly, large format documentaries like the ones often seen in IMAX theaters tend to be on the short side (typically less than an hour), and are often kind of lightly disguised travelogues masquerading as informational pieces (see Shout! Factory’s releases of Rocky Mountain Express 4K and Flight of the Butterflies 4K + 3D for a couple of examples). In that regard, Flight of the Butterflies turns out to be an interesting precursor of another kind since the “D” in this film’s title might have an “echo” of sorts in the fact that its production entity is called N3D Land, and in fact the film was evidently exhibited in 3D in several markets. Unfortunately, Shout! has chosen not to include a 3D version of the film, perhaps yet another harbinger of the seemingly slow but steady decline of that format, at least in terms of home theater releases.

The fact that D-Day: Normandy 1944 runs around 43 minutes (a few seconds less, actually) probably indicates as well as anything how in depth the documentary gets, but that said, a decent overview of both the actual day of invasion as well as some of the skirmishes afterward is given. The film is kind of hokily partitioned into sections that begin with brief summaries of various WWII era "vehicles" (for want of a better generic term) like the C-47, Liberty Ships and Jeeps. Those overviews are presented as "pop up book" animations which then give way to further animations of some of the famous "journalism five" terms like, "what", "when" and "how" (see screenshots 17 through 19 for an idea of what I'm talking about). That then gives narrator Tom Brokaw an ostensible focus to get into some of the nuts and bolts of Operation Overlord.

The documentary perhaps needlessly attempts to also provide very brief vignettes involving supposed "real" people who were involved in various aspects, including a Canadian soldier writing home to his parents, or a little French girl whose father sees the Allied fleet approaching off the coast of Normandy, but absolutely no contextual information is given, and so it's hard to work up much of an emotional connection, which seems to be the hoped for outcome. Much more moving are some of the simpler but probably more devastating uses of shots of the huge cemeteries for those who gave their lives in Normandy, including the famous American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer.

D-Day: Normandy 1944 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots were sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.

D-Day: Normandy 1944 is presented on Blu-ray and 4K UHD discs courtesy of Shout! Factory with 1080p and 2160p transfers in 1.78:1. Shout! does not appear to be releasing a standalone 1080p Blu-ray of this title as of the writing of this review, so I'll cover both presentations together in this summary. The bottom line is, you can't really go wrong with either of these presentations, as they are both fantastically sharp and well detailed looking affairs. The frequent use of graphical information like titles for locations or maps with datapoints looks nicely sharp in 1080p, but the increased clarity of printed material was one of the stronger points of the 4K UHD presentation for me. The documentary has a fair amount of CGI, some of which is at least passably effective, as in some shots of the armada making it across the English Channel, or lots of sequences featuring bomber squadrons, and for the most part the animations look nicely sharp if not always perfectly detailed. A couple of moments, as in the smoky aftermath of the bombing of a bridge the Nazis need arguably look more "cartoonish" (as in not very real looking) in the 2160p version. There is some other kind of cool looking animated material culled from sand illustrations (as documented in screenshot 7, and addressed in one of the supplements, below) which look a bit more detailed and granular in the 2160p version. A glut of aerial photography looks beautifully sharp in both presentations, but I'd argue depth of field is at least marginally improved in the 4K UHD version. Detail levels are often amazingly good in even these aerial "fly by" moments. HDR adds a few highlights to the 4K UHD version, but nothing that struck me as really overly dramatic. Some of the water shots looked slightly more teal to me, and the animated oozing reds indicating the Nazi domination of Europe looked slightly more rust colored in the 4K UHD version.

D-Day: Normandy 1944 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both versions of D-Day: Normandy 1944 sport the same fine sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. There's a lot of effects work sprinkled throughout the track, including a kind of strange opening before images even begin that almost sounds like kids playing, but which at least establishes a wide and active soundstage. A sweeping symphonic score by Franck Marchal regularly populates the surround channels and sounds warmly burnished throughout. Tom Brokaw's narration is front and center and always mixed above other elements. There are some good uses of panning effects in some of the flying sequences and some forceful LFE bursts accompanying some of the documentary's surprisingly few explosions.

D-Day: Normandy 1944 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both the 1080p Blu-ray and 2160 4K UHD discs sport the same slate of supplements:

• Interview with Pascal Vuong (1080p; 6:41) features Vuong talking about what got him interested in the project (as per above), as well as some of the rigors of the shoot.


• Interview with Narrator Tom Brokaw (1080p; 2:25) features audio of Brokaw that plays to candid footage of what looks like his recording session for the film.


• Interview with Historical Advisor Peter Hurrly (1080p; 3:53) is an interesting piece with this Colonel in the Army.


• Behind the Scenes: Normandy (1080p; 4:07) features some fun candid footage, with Vuong commenting and directing in French (with English subtitles). Two RED Epic cameras were used per this piece, to create the 3D stereo imaging.


• Behind the Scenes: Sand Animation (1080p; 2:30) is another fun if brief piece (again in French with English subtitles) showing how they did the sand animation interstitials for the film.


• Behind the Scenes: Music (1080p; 5:47) is another interesting featurette, profiling composer Franck Marchal and the recording session with the London Symphony Orchestra. This, like the others above, is in French with English subtitles.


• D-Day: 1944 Promo (1080p; 3:39) is an NBC News piece (which might indicate a little cross promotion going on, considering Tom Brokaw's contribution).


• D-Day: 1944 Trailer (1080p; 1:37) is a little strange in that it tries to "extract" 12 characters from the story to focus on.


• Normandy Today (1080p; 23:14) is simple "live" footage of various locations, without any narration, and gives a great idea of what Normandy is like. This looks like it may have been sourced from video that has some occasional minor tracking issues.


• The D-Day Museum (1080p; 4:38) celebrates the New Orleans museum.

D-Day: Normandy 1944 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm proud to be the son of one of what Tom Brokaw famously called the Greatest Generation, and in fact a campaign that my Dad helped spearhead in World War II, the push forward from Utah Beach to Cherbourg, is highlighted in this piece and called the Allies' most important objective in the whole D-Day operation. Anyone wanting a detailed accounting of the gargantuan event that was Operation Overlord will probably find this documentary too generalized, but for 43 minutes or so, Vuong does get an immense amount of information in, while providing a glut of perhaps ironically gorgeous scenery (considering the carnage that took place there), along with some intermittently effective CGI and graphical components. In terms of informational value, D-Day: Normandy 1944 is probably best appreciated as an introduction, but as such, it serves its purpose perfectly well. Technical merits are first rate, and D-Day: Normandy 1944 comes Recommended.