Britain At War - In Colour

Known outside of England as The Colour Of War - The British Story, Britain At War In Colour is a sequel of sorts to The Second World War In Colour, which many in Australia would have seen on TV under its international title, The Colour Of War. Confused? Join the club - there seems to be no obvious reason for this disparity in titling, but it becomes a moot point on DVD anyway - the locally released disc is a British import.

Like its predecessor, Britain At War draws entirely on archival colour film, an obvious marketing point when much of the footage we’ve all seen from World War 2 has been in black and white. And the producers of Britain At War aren’t about to let you forget this, either - narrator John “Inspector Morse� Thaw constantly points out the obvious. “The bombing,� he’ll say, “was filmed by Arnold Dodds of Brighton. IN COLOUR.�

What we have here is a three-episode TV series, with the first two comprised entirely of archival film and narration (like the film Dear America, this is done from diaries and letters, which are often very moving), forming a cohesive and chronological story both of life in Britain itself during the war and the experiences of the British troops doing the fighting. The third episode goes back on some of these events and presents several of the people actually involved, either behind or in front of the camera. They offer their memories in tandem with the relevant footage, and perhaps not surprisingly this episode is the most moving of the three - the first two, though fascinating enough, seem curiously detached. A common feeling across the entire series, though, is one of jingoism - unlike the lengthy World At War series, which this reviewer is currently in the middle of, Britain At War takes an approach that is (perhaps expectedly) very much biased towards the British point of view, and unlike the venerable ‘70s series, there’s a fair bit of emotional manipulation going on here both with words and with the often over-emphatic musical score.

Still, if it’s the images you’re here for, you’re in for a treat. While drawn from low-quality, aging colour film, the magic the producers have worked with the content here is startling. With the advantage of the latest restoration technology - something The World At War had to do without - the producers have managed to enhance the footage here with incredible results. They know their key selling point is colour, and they’re going to make sure you notice it.

At the end of it all, though, there’s very little real detail here. But perhaps that’s the point - while The World At War offers a detailed story of the war and its key moments, Britain At War sums up a smaller story in a different, much more emotionally-based way. And with that in mind, it’s every bit as worthwhile - after all, it was the ordinary civilians that did much of the suffering during the war in Britain. Ultimately, this is very much a visceral experience, while the older, longer series is more a vast pool of information. There’s plenty of room for both.

The video here (presented, of course, in 1.33:1 full-frame) is absolutely remarkable, especially given the age of the archival film being used. It’s very obvious right from the outset that there’s been some heavy-duty modern-day restoration done with the materials used, and while there’s film grit and grain aplenty much of the time, everything here looks surprisingly clear and crisp. This was probably the result of both modern telecine technology (forget the familiar jerkiness of old footage - there’s some digital magic at work here) and very, very careful colour balancing and enhancement. Certainly you won’t be seeing any pale, faded colour film in this series.

The crisp and artifact-free opening and closing titles, meanwhile, reveal this to be an immaculate rendering to DVD of a modern TV production, with absolutely no compression problems in evidence throughout.

The sound (in Dolby Surround) is as you’d expect from a modern TV production, and it has been flawlessly transferred to DVD. The emotive music score comes up especially well during the three episodes, but there are no problems with narration or added sound effects either. John Thaw’s narration is suitably bass-enhanced for added gravitas. The realistic sound stage created by the added sound effects is very convincing, and what could have sounded distracting and false never once provokes undue attention.

There is a reasonable collection of extras provided on this disc, one of them a genuinely remarkable gem.

Extra Footage: This menu offers some seemingly random leftover colour footage from various moments in Britain’s war. While very welcome as a bonus, the sound on these brief segments appears to suffer from both low source quality and serious compression problems. The last item on this menu, though, is a surprise treat. Famed film director William Wyler made a 37-minute documentary film in colour during the Allied bombing raids on Germany, actually going out into battle himself with his camera aboard a plane called the Memphis Belle. It was this documentary that inspired the 1990 film of the same name; offered here almost as an afterthought (it is only mentioned on the DVD’s inside cover) is the complete original film. The quality of the print used is often borderline, but this is such a historical treasure it doesn’t matter - the disc is worth the purchase price for this alone.

Diaries And Letters: Narrated diary and letter excerpts, much as heard in the series proper, dubbed over more footage. While interesting, these are too short and fragmented to have much emotional impact.

Key Facts: A text-based capsule chronology of World War 2. A good, quick primer for the uninitiated.

British WW2 Posters: Some of the motivational and propaganda posters that came out of England’s war were as stylish and remarkable as the best of them; a small selection is presented here, some of them already having been featured (ironically, with better-saturated colour) in The World At War.

Well produced and extremely well transferred to DVD, Britain At War In Colour presents a view of World War 2 that’s inevitably somewhat parochial, but which is nevertheless loaded with fascinating images and moving words, painting a picture of the conflict in a very different way to other war documentaries. With the entire three-part series along with a generous helping of extra material (one of those very recommendable), this disc makes for a very worthwhile addition to the DVD library of anyone with the slightest interest either in history in general or the Second World War in particular.