7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Leonard Graves narrates this gripping 26-part documentary, which debuted in 1952, about World War II and how it was waged from all fronts — on the ground, from the skies and, most of all, on the sea. Extensive black-and-white footage of the battles and remarkably balanced commentary take viewers right to the front lines.
Starring: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Hermann Göring, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Erwin RommelWar | 100% |
History | 78% |
Documentary | 39% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps)
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Television was still very much a new fangled contraption in 1952 and 1953. While more and more people were bringing the giant sets with the tiny screens home and enjoying everything from Uncle Miltie to I Love Lucy, there was still something special about being able to see moving pictures over the air, free and in the comfort of your own home. The major networks were still trying to figure out exactly what kinds of shows they should program and it may therefore be something of a surprise to realize that the now famous war documentary Victory at Sea was something of a major risk when NBC decided to program it on Sunday afternoons starting in the fall of 1952. Something of this extended length and scope had never really been attempted before on American television, and there was a certain trepidation that a long form documentary series was not something the American public would flock to, even with the newness still attached to the television medium as a whole. NBC needn’t have worried. Victory at Sea attracted large and appreciative audiences and the epic recounting of America’s naval involvement in World War II became an early harbinger of just what television could accomplish should it set its mind to do something more than present a cross-dressing comedian or, indeed, a cross-dressing comedienne. Some 20 years before The World at War fascinated a new generation of WWII enthusiasts (if that’s the right word), Victory at Sea enthralled audiences with its 26 episode recounting of everything from Pearl Harbor to the Atom Bomb. Conceived by a sailor named Henry Salomon, Victory at Sea was one of the first television documentaries to effectively exploit the millions of feet of footage shot by various newsreels and actual combatants in and around the war. While that kept filming costs relatively low, it made for an exhaustive research project and in fact it took around two years for Victory at Sea to be assembled into a final product. NBC was taking no chances, however, and in a sort of odd marketing decision decided that the name of Broadway’s leading composer Richard Rodgers could help attract audiences to the project. Rodgers was hired to ostensibly score the entire series (and in fact he received a composer credit). What Rodgers actually did was to sketch out 12 very brief piano themes which his regular orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett then developed into a huge, virtually thirteen hour through-scored orchestral suite which accompanied each of the 26 half hour long episodes. Long after Victory at Sea had receded in viewers’ memories, albums (and later CDs) of the score of the show were a staple at record emporiums around the world.
There's little doubt that Periscope Films indulged in a labor of love by transferring original film elements to HD and encoding them via AVC to provide Victory at Sea a full 1080p treatment in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. That said, these restoration efforts can only do so much with a lot of footage that was shot under less than optimal conditions, never stored properly, and was on substandard stock to begin with, often in very small 8mm or 16mm formats. Therefore anyone expecting a miracle with this new Blu-ray release is probably going to be sorely disappointed. However, a quick comparison to any of the many previous home video releases (and Periscope kindly provided me with a PD DVD release of the title just for those purposes) proves that there is a considerable uptick in both sharpness and especially contrast in this new release. Does it look pristine? Hardly. Is there still damage? Yes, lots of it. There's also overwhelming grain, especially in the smaller millimeter formats, but if you take all of this into consideration, this is still a very good looking release. Some of the less damaged, well shot footage in fact looks as good as anything that went through the massive restoration, scrubbing process that recently greeted The World at War. While this release is nowhere near that exhaustive in its restoration efforts, it still reveals a wealth of new detail and is especially impressive in its increased contrast. If you come to this release with realistic expectations, you'll most likely be pleasantly surprised.
Caveat: As with their previous Memphis Belle release, Periscope has chosen to "protect" its version of this PD release by burning in a "bug" (a small icon and/or text) which appears with distressing regularity in the bottom right of the image. It's not completely distracting, but it's annoying enough that it deserves mention. While it's certainly understandable why Periscope had to do this, that doesn't make it any easier to watch, however peripherally.
The press release which accompanied this Blu-ray was honest enough to admit that it simply wasn't feasible to provide Victory at Sea with a repurposed surround track. This series was obviously recorded in the mono age, and only a mono stem survives. The Dolby 2.0 mono track is acceptable, nothing more, but the press release does not address why we weren't at least given the option of a lossless mono LPCM 2.0 track. That would have upped the appeal of this piece immensely, which features one of the most famous scores in the history of television. As it stands, Victory at Sea sounds decent enough, though it is plagued by boxiness, some dropouts, wobble and out of phase elements. There are occasional noticeable differences in amplitude and quality can vary from episode to episode and even within certain episodes. A major restoration effort may have been cost prohibitive for a boutique label like Periscope, but a series with this iconic of a soundtrack really deserves that restoration, no matter how costly. This DD mono track gets the job done—Graves' narration and the frequent sound effects are listenable and discernable despite occasional damage, but that great Rodgers-Bennett score really would have benefited from a lossless approach.
The first disc contains a PDF File of the original NBC publicity booklet from 1952. Disc One also contains an optional commentary on the "Guadalcanal" episode by Victory at Sea expert Dr. Peter C. Rollins, who despite being obviously unaccustomed to a commentator status imparts a good deal of information about the series as a whole and this particular episode. Periscope's Nick Spark also conducts an interesting audio only interview with Rollins (35:36) on Disc Three.
Victory at Sea is one of the most honored and beloved documentary series in television history, having won both the Emmy and the Peabody Award. While it may seem dated in certain respects to modern audiences, it is a fascinating historical time capsule both as a recounting of the naval side of World War II, but tangentially as a document of how America was feeling about the war in the early 1950s. This Periscope release has gussied up the image to a remarkable extent, but the lossy Dolby soundtrack has a number of damage issues, unfortunately. Still and all, this is the best looking and sounding this landmark series has ever been on home video, and it comes Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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