BY DOUG OSWALD
“WWII:
Behind the Front Lines of the War that Shook the World†is a six-DVD set
comprising three documentaries released by Mill Creek Entertainment. While the
first documentary in the set is about WWII, the second, “Combat Aircrafts,†is
a five-part series tracing the history of aviation from the pioneers to modern
military aircraft and partially touches on the topic of WWII. The third, “Waves
of Freedom,†is a documentary film about American volunteers who helped break
the British blockade of Palestine in 1947.
“The
Finest Hours of the Second World War†is a 21-part series originally released
in 2009 and is a Spanish American co-production from Pacific Media. Written and
directed by Jose Delgado, the film footage shot during the war is mostly
familiar to those of us who have enjoyed watching similar documentaries over
the years. Each episode is about 52-minutes long and was probably designed to
fit an hour long time slot. The series begins with events leading up to WWII
starting with the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Each episode focuses on one
aspect of the war and explains in detail the motivations and mistakes behind
the memorable moments of World War II in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.
The
series is narrated by Drew Crosby with the original Spanish narrator, Jose Ma
del Rio, also credited. Unfortunately, there is not a Spanish language track or
subtitles on this set. The narration is presumably translated from Spanish and
the English speaking narrator has a distinctive diction. Crosby places the
wrong emphasis on the syllables of certain words, such as strategist, which can
be distracting and results in what my high school French teacher called spastic
speech. Other than that, the research is sound and when combined with the film
and maps, makes for a very interesting take on the war.
Unfortunately,
the presentation is in full frame and is also letterboxed on top of that,
resulting in a small image area and cropped film footage on the top and bottom.
Movies in this era used the full frame ratio of 1.33:1. I found it best to
leave the picture as is because messing with it to fit a contemporary wide
screen monitor contributed to more fuzziness in a product which is not high
definition. The image quality is okay and what you’d expect from film of this
era going on 80 years. Overall, the picture and sound were fine, but the image
area was distracting. Music and sound effects credited to Rosa Perez &
Bakery Publishing were also good. In what is often silent film footage, they
added the sounds of men, machinery, gun fire and other sounds of war one would
expect which brings the film to life. All 21 episodes are presented on four
discs with “The Dawn of War†made up of 11 episodes spread over two discs and
“The Fight for Freedom†making up the remaining 10 episodes on the next two
discs.
The
second documentary, “Combat Aircrafts,†is a five-part series on the history of
military aviation with two parts devoted to WWII. This documentary series was
also produced by Pacific Media and co-written and directed by Jose Delgado in
2010. Each episode is 52 minutes in length and relies on mostly black and white
archival footage. The series is narrated by Drew Crosby with the original
Spanish narrator, J. Angel Juares, also credited. The narration has the same
issues as the previous title starting with the title which is spelled out on
screen as “Combat Aircrafts†and pronounced in the narration as “Combat
Aircraft.†It would have been helpful if a native English speaker with
knowledge of WWII and military aircraft had proof reviewed the product prior to
releasing it to the English speakers. I’m not certain where this was originally
presented, but my guess is it was sold independently to various cable
television and broadcast outlets. Overall, the presentation is good, presented
in full frame, this time without letterboxing the image area. Each episode held
my interest in spite of the distraction in the pronunciation style of the
narration. All five episodes are presented on one disc.
“Waves
of Freedom†is a documentary film about Americans recruited to smuggle Jewish
refugees into Palestine which was still controlled by the British in 1947. The
men were a combination of Merchant Marine and U.S. Navy veterans of WWII of
mostly Jewish background who were recruited on a secret mission to bring
European Jewish refugees into Palestine which would soon become the nation of
Israel. Made for television in 2008, the documentary was written, directed and
co-produced by Alan Rosenthal and is narrated by Antony Thomas. The film clocks
in at 52 minutes and features excellent picture and sound quality in the full
frame presentation which uses a combination of archival black and white footage
from the post-war period and contemporary interviews with the men who took part
in the mission which are filmed in color. The movie is presented on its own
disc.
The
discs on this set offer no supplements of any kind. The set is hard to
recommend with so many other better offerings on the same topics. The third
stand alone documentary, “Waves of Freedom,†is the documentary of greatest
interest, but it doesn’t have much to do with the other programs in this set. (This release also includes digital copies.)
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