WWII in HD Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

WWII in HD Blu-ray Movie Review

This Collector's Edition has some fantastic new supplements.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 16, 2011

We’re soon arriving at the point where we won’t have any members of the Greatest Generation around anymore, and memories are going to fade. I was watching a war documentary on television the other night and my youngest son asked me, “Why do they film wars?” and I had to think for moment before telling him, “So that there’s a record of what happened for future generations.” I was lucky enough to be born rather late in life to a member of the Greatest Generation, a man who rose to become a Major General in the Army and whose World War II exploits were the subject of several stories (many published in The New Yorker) by famed war correspondent A.J. Liebling. That gave me perhaps a greater appreciation than most in my generation for the accomplishments of the men (and of course women) who sacrificed so much to keep the world free of tyranny during the most epochal battle of the 20th century. That makes the visual record of documentaries like WWII in HD all the more valuable to those younger than myself who were raised on videogames and the “entertainment value” (such as it is) of watching a war unfold on the 24 hour cable news operations. The late thirties through the mid-forties were obviously a more innocent time, at least with regard to media saturation, and that makes the films in this set all the more astounding. This new collector’s edition of WWII in HD is released in a handsome, somewhat oversized “Army green” box, which includes the original release of the title along with new supplementary features.

For a review of the original release of WWII in HD, including that release's original supplements, click here. This review will concentrate on the supplements exclusive to this set (see below).

WWII in HD Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

These new supplemental features are presented via an AVC codec in 1080p in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. As with the main WWII in HD set, video quality is of course dependent on what the archival footage itself looks like, and in many cases that's none too good. A lot of this footage is obviously blown up from 16mm (or perhaps even 8mm) source elements, and so it's often quite fuzzy and filled with grain. Color can be blanched quite a bit of the time and there's abundant damage in virtually every sequence. But the historical importance of these images far outweighs their technical limitations and taken as a whole a lot of this footage looks surprisingly good considering its age and the conditions under which it was filmed. The one egregious error here is the aforementioned anamorphic stretching of the 1.33:1 material to 1.78:1 in The Air War, which just looks plain odd when interspersed with the properly presented contemporary footage. In fact the contemporary interview footage looks spectacular, with crisp color, brilliant fine detail and appealing contrast.

WWII in HD Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All of the war footage was silent, and so sound designers had a field day supplying soundtracks for these supplements, offered here in either a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. These are incredibly boisterous mixes, with a wealth of surround activity in the 5.1 mix. Explosions rip through the soundfield with unbelievable force, making this one of the most aggressively consistent releases with regard to almost nonstop LFE. The sounds of battle are splayed around the surrounds giving the listener a very realistic recreation of what the actual battles must have sounded like. There's some rather artful melding of sound to image throughout both of these supplements, including a very well done marriage of Roosevelt's inaugural address, evidently culled from radio, which is wedded to some newsreel footage of the event. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is spectacular on both of the DTS tracks.

WWII in HD Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Battle for Iwo Jima (HD; 57:31). This documentary recounts one of the bloodiest, hardest fought battles in World War II, one which may have ultimately proven to be unnecessary, as this piece also gets into. By January 20, 1945, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was giving his inauguration address for his unprecedented fourth term as President, the European theater seemed to be largely under control, moving toward what many expected would be a fairly quick conclusion. (Sadly, Roosevelt of course did not live to see victory which was then seemingly so easily within reach). The Pacific theater, on the other hand, was still awash (no pun intended) in battle, with the Japanese literally dug in and seemingly more intractable the more desperate their straits became. While the Americans had claimed the Mariana Islands in January 1945, bombing flights from the Marianas to the actual Japanese islands were still being viciously attacked by the Japanese, most troublingly from the fortified volcanic island known as Iwo Jima. The B-29 "Superfortress" bombers had incredible range, a range that could easily outlast any fighter accompanying flights, and so the B-29s were largely unprotected on their 3000 mile round trip from such bases as Guam, Saipan and the Marianas to Tokyo and other Japanese cities. That seemed to make Iwo Jima a prime strategic target that absolutely had to be captured in order to secure a free and clear pathway (actually airway) to Japan. The fact that Iwo Jima also had radar which could give the Japanese islands around two hours' notice that American bombers were headed their way made the objective all the more important.
  
  The Battle for Iwo Jima departs somewhat from the original documentary in that it doesn't really explicitly focus on individual participants, though occasional we do get snippets of eye witness accounts delivered via the narrator. Instead this is a more or less objectified documentary recounting the horror of this particular battle, one which the General in charge of the land forces kept predicting would be a swift victory for the Americans, over within 10 days, but which stretched to well over a month (and even then wasn't completed by the invading Marine forces, but had to be finished up by a large Army force which found more than a thousand hideaway Japanese still more than willing to continue fighting).
  
  The logistical difficulties of taking this volcanic island are gone into in some detail, as well as the Japanese ferocity in making sure they could keep the island, which they defended from underground bunkers they had had a long time to prepare and fortify. Though the Americans attempted to "soften" the target with a lot of bombing raids and then incursions by tanks, what was soon discovered was the only way Iwo Jima was going to fall was basically by hand to hand combat and individual Marines breaking through the lines and taking the fortified compounds.
  
  There's a great segment on the taking of the island's iconic Mt. Surabachi, a huge volcanic outcropping on the south side of the island that took days to secure. The first Marine expeditionary force which got up to the summit planted a tiny American flag that immediately raised morale, but then almost immediately Japanese emerged from hiding places within the volcano and a new fight erupted. Backup Marine forces arrived, and it was that second force which raised the larger flag whose raising was captured in perhaps the most legendary photo of the entire Second World War. The Battle for Iwo Jima makes the poignant point that three of the six raising the flag, as well as the cameraman snapping that iconic picture, perished in the fight. The other three Marines were shipped back to the United States on direct orders of President Roosevelt to aid in efforts to raise funds with War Bonds. The three were obviously conflicted about this new "mission" of theirs.
  
  What's ultimately so ironic about the battle for Iwo Jima is after we discovered nighttime air raids against Japan were far more effectivbe and less dangerous, Iwo Jima became less necessary as a strategic outpost. The Air Force struggled to rationalize the deaths of so many thousands of Americans taking the island and ultimately came up with the perhaps propagandistic approach that Iwo Jima could serve as a way station for damaged bombers, which indeed it did until the end of the war.
  
  
• The Air War (HD; 1:27:31). This longer feature gets back to the conceit utilized in the original WWII in HD series, namely first person accounts of various battles. The calling card here may be the participation of Andy Rooney. Rooney, who just recently passed away, is probably best remembered by most people for his curmudgeonly commentaries which regularly closed each week's 60 Minutes episode, but in the forties Rooney was a young man attempting to enter journalism, assigned to the military newspaper The Stars and Stripes, and "embedded" (though that term wasn't in use in those days) with the Air Force, accompanying bombers on several missions. The Air War also features three other, perhaps less well known but no less notable, guys, all of whom had actual combat experience in the air.
  
  The Air War starts out by reminding viewers of the incredible fact that within a month of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the 8th Air Force was founded in Savannah, Georgia, with a sum total of seven men and no planes. This almost laughable amalgamation was tasked with defeating the most powerful air armada ever known to Man, the German Luftwaffe. The fact that the Americans were able not just to start manufacturing planes, but also were able to train forces and ultimately not just engage the Luftwaffe but defeat them, is one of the most unbelievable stories of World War II.
  
  Quite a bit of this feature concentrates on Blitz Week, a planned attempt to take out the Luftwaffe and several key German sites which turned out to be fairly disastrous for America and the Allies. That didn't stop the U.S. propaganda machine (and, yes, there was a U.S. propaganda machine, as The Air War stunningly demonstrates) from highlighting supposed, if illusory, victories. One of the men profiled in this documentary also goes into some detail about how fooled he was by stateside reporting of supposed advances which turned out to be false once he got in theater and was actually able to see what was going on.
  
  The Air War does have some fairly gruesome imagery early on as footage of badly wounded airmen is shown, so those with squeamish stomachs should be forewarned. Unfortunately this documentary also anamorphically stretches what was obviously originally 1.33:1 footage to fit the 1.78:1 aspect ratio of the contemporary footage, making the archival sequences look odd and distorted. Otherwise, though, this is a remarkable piece of documentary filmmaking that is visceral, heartfelt and emotionally devastating at times.

WWII in HD Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As I have mentioned in several World War II related reviews, including the one for the original release of WWII in HD, I am incredibly proud to be the son of one of the Greatest Generation, a man who completely lived up to the stature that Tom Brokaw among others granted to men of his kind long after they had secured victory for the Allies. That personal connection perhaps makes me more receptive to documentaries of this type, but really anyone with a desire for history not to repeat itself owes it to themselves to become as well acquainted as possible with what actually occurred during this incredible conflict. Though The Battle for Iwo Jima largely foregoes the first person narrative that makes the rest of WWII in HD so memorable, both of the new supplements offered in this Collector's Edition are worthy additions to the overall enterprise. Though image quality is obviously quite spotty here, these documentaries are very well assembled and edited, and both feature blistering soundtracks. Highly recommended.