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  • English: Dolby Digital Mono
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    D-Day to Berlin
    Warner Bros./Warner Home Video . R4 . COLOR . 44 mins . MA15+ . PAL

      Feature
    Contract

    George Stevens was the successful director of such pre-war classics as the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical Swing Time and post-war blockbusters such as Giant.

    In between he went to war. He joined the Signals Corp and was put in charge of a documentary team which filmed the US Army's progress across Europe from D-Day onwards.

    And while his team was filming with black-and-white film in 35mm cameras, he had his personal 16mm camera loaded with Kodacolor, shooting reel after reel, and sending the results home to the States.

    This short (only 44 minutes) movie is an exceptionally skilful edited version of those historic home movies -- historic because this is one of the rare times we get to see the Second World War as it really was -- in full colour.

    The scenes of the US army rolling through otherwise bucolic French countryside marred by shell-torn villages is all the more compelling because of the colour. And the people -- soldiers relaxing between battles, or right up there on the frontline -- seem somehow more immediate and personal.

    Throughout, George Stevens stayed right where the action was - and some of the most compelling imagery comes near the close, as his camera records unforgettable scenes of liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau, where the institutionalised brutality and bestiality of the Nazis was on naked display.

    This is great documentary footage, with the Second World War brought to life with a vivid immediacy seldom seen.

      Video
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      Extras
    Contract

    The transfer is better than you might expect from home colour 16mm stock now nearing 60 years of age. The colours aren't perfect -- they have the sort of slight pastelly appearance reminiscent of early magazines -- but in a way, the lack of glossy perfection lends even greater veracity to the footage. It's flawed by today's standards, but I found it just terrific.

    The mono soundtrack is fine for its basic narration and for the music track by Carl Davis and Peter Howell. Nothing flash, and nothing flash needed.

    There are no extras of any kind.


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  •   And I quote...
    "This is great documentary footage, with the Second World War brought to life in genuine colour reportage, with a vivid immediacy seldom seen."
    - Anthony Clarke
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DVD 655A
    • TV:
          Loewe Profil Plus 3272 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Denon AVR-3801
    • Speakers:
          Neat Acoustics PETITE
    • Centre Speaker:
          Neat Acoustics PETITE
    • Surrounds:
          Celestian (50W)
    • Subwoofer:
          B&W ASW-500
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