History prepping WWII in HD series
By Richard Lawler 
posted May 17th 2009 4:22PM
posted May 17th 2009 4:22PM
Aside from its own plans for global domination, History recently laid out plans for several new series to expect and the one that caught our eye was WWII in HD. Set to debut in the fall the 10 episode series pulls from over 3,000 hours of color film recorded during the war, restored in high definition, plus contemporary HD footage and a 5.1 surround sound audio track formed from authentic and new sounds, including recordings from the Library of Congress. Described as following the experiences of a handful of men as their journeys cross-connect throughout the war, this should fit right in not only with history buffs, but also fans of Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan.[Via TV Squad]
Wow, the Hitler obsessed channel will give us the 3rd Reich in HD with 5.1 audio!?
(seriously look at their schedule and remove the umteen Hitler/Germany/3rd Reich/Nazi tech shows and there's really b*gger all of much else.
It's such a shame really as their US Civil War series was very good and they have had some very good programs on Korea and Vietnam but those really are the small minority)
There is a reason they keep making WW 2 / Hitler shows, because they get good ratings. I find WW2 the most interesting war to watch a documentary about.
Ivan, speaking generally I'd agree.
The thing is though, there's a hell of a lot more to WW2 than fawning over everything Hitler, Nazi Germany or the 1930's - 1940's technical inventions the German side made.
It has given rise to all sorts of misconceptions; these invariably down-play allied technology, which was in fact either more or just as advanced - with a mere handful of exceptions in a very few specific areas, most of which were conceptual and had absolutely no relevance or practical application to the war.
It creates a laughably childish view of technological advance, where their mere concept drawings - or even initial prototype(s) - are taken to mean they were 'right on the verge of having x, y or z' with zero consideration given to the years of hard work needed to turn concepts and prototypes in operational types.
There was a calculated glamour to the Nazi regalia (Hugo Boss designed uniforms etc) and undoubtedly the 'dark side' has it's appeal for some but IMO the History channel is obsessed in a deeply partial and unhealthy way.
I just can't see why we give those monsters so much air-time and our own side so little.
It is IMO something of an insult to those of us whos' families suffered, died and lost so much in WW2.
history channel hd still show 2.0 in their every program, so finally 5.1 upgrade?
Colour film is always interesting (and because of the limited stocks back then it's mostly, but not entirely, confined to German & US sourcing).
Not sure how 5.1 can be realistic for this though.
It might be better if the lazy program producers actually stopped showing incorrect movie stock footage and bothered to find the correct footage of the various events, or machine types being discussed.
Given the specialist nature of the subject and the appeal to those who already are likely to know quite a bit about the subject that is a real annoying frequent issue with their stuff.
Using 'The World at War' footage endlessly (and often completely out of context.....one well known scene of English farmers in 1940 looking up to watch the Battle of Britain taking place overhead was used in a program as if they were being threateneed with staffing of dive-bombing, for instance) is a real cop-out.
Similarly using late war footage to illustrate early war events is a regular feature of their shows.
Most damning of all though is the way that - with a few rare exceptions - they rarely add anything new to the sum of what we have already seen and know about WW2.
Are you kidding me? All I ever see lately on History Channel are shows about an ice road that gets driven on (I was actually entertained about an ice road for a whole 10mins) and a bunch of hicks chomping down trees.
History Channel has gone down the tubes and it's now a race to see who can outdo the other channels "reality TV". History Channel used to show quality shows and documentaries. So how much UFO, "monsters" and ice truckers/ Tree choppers can we take? Ever since that bi0ach Nancy Dubuc came on, the History Channel became a cheaper braindead version of the Discovery Channel.
With that said, I applaud this announcement. I actually love WWII, and I'll never cease to learn something new about it. I'll take this over HillBillyTV anyday.
Hey MFM I think you will find your concerns are sadly all too true. History Channel is a sorry state of affairs today as is the entire Main Stream Media. 99% of what is on TV is 100% garbage. And you can count on the fact that WWII HD (If it ever sees the light of day - History may shelve the whole boondoggle...err "project" if things don't get back on schedule). Will be another sorry rehash of the same cliched "Small town farm boy goes to war" and meets some rough and tumble kid from Brooklyn who later dies saving a nurse who goes on to North Africa... well you get the point. Rather than focus on what really matters which is the authentic color film itself they take the "easy" way which really is just making it harder for themselves since all these shows really ever need to do is just research what the damn film actually shows and not try and one up Speilberg, Hanks or Burns! There is nothing worse than a "documentary" showing authentic footage, filmed by people who risked their lives to document real people who were actually fighting the war in front of the camera, then you have these pompous producers misrepresent it, completely disregarding the actual events and individuals in front of and behind the camera. Just look at who is producing this new show: Reda Films, does not have a very good track record as of late. Its last show about the 70's was mind numbing. I'm sorry but how can you have a documentary about American "Pop-culture" in the 1970's and you don't even mention Jaws or Star Wars or Elvis freakin Presley!? They think they're going to create some cutting edge show on WWII by mixing and matching color footage with colorized black and white (which has been done to death) then layer totally fabricated sound fx, only to then weave several "based on true stories" characters back and forth over 10 1 hour episodes all while trying to have it combine into a coherent climactic story arch? Yeah, good luck with that. I'll take a pass on this one, hopefully History comes to its senses and reels this before its too late, if it isn't already...