‘WWII In HD’ Provides Riveting History Lessons
by Ted Baehr“WWII In HD” is an excellent 10-hour, five part series narrated by Gary Sinise of “Forrest Gump” and “CSI: New York. “ Three episodes air tonight on the History Channel.
The series shows the war through the eyes of 12 Americans who fought in the war or contributed to it in some way. Using diaries, journals, and new interviews, it follows these Americans as their personal journeys intersect with one another throughout the war effort. Hollywood actors, including LL Cool J of “NCIS: Los Angeles,” Rob Lowe, Amy Smart, Jason Ritter, and Steve Zahn, portray the young voices of the Americans. The original Americans include a war reporter, an Army nurse, a young African American from Toledo who became a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a second-generation Japanese American, and a Jewish immigrant from Austria who wound up in the Pacific Theater.
The series draws on more than 3,000 hours of World War II footage culled from archives and private collections around the world. Restored and enhanced through HD technology, the footage brings to light some riveting stories on America’s fight for freedom against the National Socialist armies of Germany, Japan, and Italy.
Some of the war scenes warrant caution for older children, however, because of the violence depicted, some light foul language and rear documentary shots of naked soldiers.
“WWII In HD” is extremely compelling viewing. This patriotic series has a very strong Christian, moral worldview, with heroic everyday people making great sacrifices as they join the battle against horrific evil.
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72 Comments
The Greatest Generation in full battle array and in all their glory. I'm there!
Best documentary of WWII ever made, and I have seen pretty much all of them
I'll definitely watch this. Both my grandfathers were Captain's in the Red Army and their stories from the Eastern Front are awe inspiring. I would love to see the bloodiest battle in human history, Stalingrad, in HD. To put Stalingrad in perspective, America lost 400,000 men in the war, in the Battle of Stalingrad there were approx 2 million killed [includes Soviet military, Soviet citizens that participated (you had no choice- fight or die), and the nazi rats].
Pretty good series so far!
Unlike Ken Burn's "The War".
God, I never finished that series….RACE RACE RACE, Burns hits you over the head twenty times an episode about how terrible America was because of racism, how racism stained our morality….forever, I guess. Why does the Left have to twist everything in our history to show how racist America is? In their worldview, since America is not PERFECT, we should never judge other people or governments. Except the Nazis.
I watched this last night. My God! I couldn't believe what I was watching. How untrained and under equipped to fight that war. Our military had 500.000 men when it broke out. They where still using horses. I cant believe we won that war. The video of the people on the street walking around. The men all in suit's and the women look so lovely in there dresses. I think about the America I live in today. Could America stop this again today? Not sure.
Caught it last night as well. Very impressive battle footage.
Like Ted said though, the graphic, no holds barred nature of some was a bit startling so you may want to consider that before allowing younger children to view.
I absolutely believe that American could stop this again IF WE WANTED TO. That's the part that scares me–do enough of us have the will to triumph that citizens had then? I want to believe it, but I do have my doubts.
Great show! A riveting truth that evil does exist, turn your back on crazy, sixty million dead.
I can think of about 30 name's right now off the top of my head. Guy's in and out of the military. They have the spirit that I know. Those men are the cream of the military and the cream of our society. Take a look at FDR. Yes we all know he was a socialist. We all know, however look at the speeches he gave to the boy's. The man was NOT an internationalist. In the sense that he cared about defending the people of America. The Japaneses where locked up in camp's, The military had invented it's own unit the 442nd. All Japanese unit. Which I might add was the most highly decorated unit in the military. I think the politician's have labeled us to much and we are too divided. But in my heart I know its not true I hope.
I wanted to jump into my screen and help those people. With a machine gun shooting the people that wanted to shoot those Jewish people. My heart breaks every time I see that stuff.
Wes, all white liberals are anal retentive in race. Burns did it in his Civil War series and slavery wasn't the main and only reason. The liberals have an agenda and the sooner we get them out of power the quicker we can end their fairy tale on how they re-wrote history to fit their sick leftist guilt trip in their world view.
Thanks for the head's up. I just put it on the DVR to record.
There are enough of us that would defend this country to the death and take our enemies with us if need be. Only the leftist in this country will live as slaves. We will kick butt out there once we are focus and we end this 60s cancer of PC. The left is begging us to get hit again and this time it will be huge and then America will unleash hell upon this earth like no one can.
jack, I agree, when we see evil killing innocent people because of their religion, race or whatever, its up to us Americans to clean up the mess. The rest of the useless ingrate world won't lift a finger to stop evil. They didn't when Hitler and Tojo were gobbling up countries. Evil is always vanquished but good has to pay a high price in blood for that victory. America is the only country to do this, Europe is useless, forget China and Russia they can't even save themselves. They only have big parades showing off dummy missiles. We build aircraft carriers and deploy people and equipment all over the world. The rest of the world is totally useless and ingrates, except for the Brits.
anything about wwii is so romantic to me, so this documentary is a great watch. i'm staying tuned in all week! the call of duty series also does a lot of justice to wwii, though this is random afterthought.
Well I'm a lot younger than you and I can look at war's like Vietnam in full context. What the left did to the troop's in America is so shameful. The communist where using the left to push there agenda to win the war using the hippies to do it. I see your an independent film maker. O I have about 3 story's right now that I would love to pitch to you.
Keep this in mind though: the Soviets primarily defeated Nazi Germany, though they had substantial help from these United States.
I am not saying this to belittle American heroes, but rather to state the truth. After all, this country was on the right side of the war, and this country still defeated Japan (the Navy made sure there was no question who won THAT one.)
And before some of you break out the "they bombed civilians, THEY BOMBED CIVILIANS!!!111!!1eleventy-one!!111!" crocodile tears, take a good look at what the Japanese military wanted to inflict upon the world and what the emperor signed off on. "Letters from Iwo Jima" was shameful. Somehow, I believe that if the US took Berlin, the Nazis would be held up as victims of American imperialism…
so any word if the allies are mentioned or is this another case of the Americans finding and capturing the first Enigma coder :-0 evry one of the allied men and women who faught did their part, I really hope this is not revisionist history at its worst
Hi Jack, The Brits faught hard against the NAZIS and the other barbarians and were very greatful when the Americans joined in, Also proprortionatly to population the Brits today are loosing men and women at the same rate as the USA in iraq and afganitsan.
As for China the last time they faught seriously there was 1 (one) rifle per 100 men and as they screamed down the hills they would pick up the rifle from fallen chinese then run on, THIS time they are all armed they have a superb fighting army, a growing airforce and poerful navy, and they unlike Americans would think nothing of sending 3000 bombers to teh USA knowing only a few would get through ,,,,,, you talk about spinless Europe which President just bent over double to a foreign emperor? which President weants to see Nagasaki and hiroshima but noit yet visited Pearl Harbor, which president is in denial about a attack in his biggest base saying it was stress?
Yes America is great but take a good long look at where it is going ……. and to finish do you speak Spanish yet? your kids will and with the anchor babies there will be a spanish speaking president quicker than there was a black one
It was excellent last night, and I will be watching tonight. The World at War series is also very good.
There are so many lessons to be learned from that time period on a national level, from ignoring all the warning signs of impending catastrophe, to seeing the peril, but choosing to appease the bad guys, and finally displaying the intestinal fortitude to face evil with the determintation to destroy it.
There are also lessons on a personal level, from the struggle to survive to that of trying to understand how ordinary people, no different from us today, could become the SS and massacre innocents. And how the education system in pre-war Japan created the mindset that caused the Rape of Nanking. By the way, the book by that title by Iris Chang documents this forgotten and largely ignored massacre.
As far as casualties go, there is no comparisn between what the US lost and what the USSR lost. Ten million is a figure that I have seen, unbelievable carnage.
The Japanese were absolutely brutal to the Chinese, and some historians say that WW II actually started when Japan invaded Manchuria. The atrocities committed in China are largely ignored in the west, overshadowed by the horrendous massacres in Europe.
Oh, I learned about the Nanking Massacre when I was in high school — though I didn't learn about it in school. Surprised the hell out of me.
another forgotten massacre is Mai Lai …… carried out by people who should have know better.
However in war is death and collateral damage is inevitable
This blog article addresses that subject:
http://rantsand.blogspot.com/2007/04/why-nazi-com...
Approx 27 million Russians were killed in WWII aka the Great Patriotic War. In the Battle of Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle in human history, more than 1 million Russians were killed [military and civilian] and approx 750,000 nazis were killed.
WW2 and WE were the racists? Now I have heard everything….
Hi Nancy, just for an old romatic like you here is a true romantic scenario from WWII please watch right to the end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps64xxJq0mg&fe...
Jack, yes you know thirty, are they writing to the congress and their reps in the senate and at state level top protect their ist and 2nd amendments? look at todays school kids singing the praises of a left wing president, they are being taught!!!! also your thirty, how many times you passed home depot and seen 60 fit young men? also your thirty to be eff3ective must leave families to fight as a uniot …. do you know how many MS-13 and related gang members there are in the USA??? do you know they are better armed and more willing to loose their lives than our LE??
if a gang of MS-13 decided to take over an area believe me it happens, ……. I KNOW I HAVE SEEN IT
I do not doubt your 30's patriotic williningness to fight for USA, but your thirty are already outnumbered, look how many patriotic young men and women who were trained in warfare were taken out by a non combatant medic strangel and ironically he took out more than thirty in the space of four minutes.
Nothing romantic about war, Nancy.
I think you got the right figure overall. I think my number of 10 million may have been military deaths.
The Soviets certainly made Nazi ideas of Nordic supremacy seem a bit shopworn.
Unfortunately, while the Soviets' "Great Patriotic War" officially runs from 1941 to 1945, their participation in World War II actually began in 1939 — as an ally of Nazi Germany! Together the two totalitarian powers invaded Poland, and they remained partners until Hitler double-crossed his Uncle Joe and tried to outpace Stalin's record of mass murder. (The invasion of the Soviet Union naturally caused American Communists, including Dalton "Johnny Got His Gun" Trumbo, to drop their objectively pro-Axis "anti-war" activities and rush to support the Allied war effort with such works as Trumbo's screenplay for the classic "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.")
Max Hasting's recent work "Nemesis" (called "Retribution" in the U.S.) has some interesting coverage of the Soviet Union's war against Japan — declared after the dropping of the atomic bombs.
I haven't seen "Letters from Iwo Jima" yet, but from what I've read it seems that Clint Eastwood came down with a bad case of "both-sides-ism" and rather forgot about the monstrous nature of the vicious Japanese military machine.
I'm not sure of the overall breakdown myself but ultimately it doesn't much matter, in Russia at that time everyone was a soldier under the circumstances. My grandmother was/is a doctor and she and her female colleagues would shovel coal into the steam engines to get ammo and food to the front. Children did what they could. It was literally a fight for their lives; the nazis had swept across the Soviet Union -which had 11 time zones to give you an idea of the size- and they were marching towards the gates of Moscow.
I always like "The World at War," but will look forward to this, and check it out.
The capacity for enduring such suffering is something that we have no comprehension of. Have you ever written down your grandmother's story? A good book about that time is Nina's Journey, by Nina Markovna, a memoir of Stalin's Russian and the second world war.
It’s funny you should ask that. As of yet no. Each year my grandmother tells me as many stories as she can remember [my grandfather did as well before he passed away 4 years ago] and I know most of them. Last year I decided I’ll record her stories of the war and all her stories about life in the Soviet Union. Next week is her birthday; I’ll bring the recorder.
Both my grandfathers were Captain’s in the Red Army and their stories were incredible. I’d share a few but I doubt anyone would believe them. I will tell one story…….my grandfather in one of his battles took a bayonet to the face and had his chin nearly cut off. The nurse that sewed his chin back on would become my grandmother. When he proposed to her he had enough money for a few grams of chocolate. When my father proposed to my mother poverty was still hellish in Russia. But he came with a promise, a promise to get them to America, and he did.
Below is a link about the Stalingrad Streetfighters that helped change history. The article is written by communists so disregard the Mother Russia bravado, otherwise it’s an excellent article. I naturally take pride in what the Streetfighters did.
http://revcom.us/a/v22/1090-99/1098/stalingrad.ht...
That is a hell of a story and I appreciate you telling it. I would like to hear more. I am not sure how to go about doing it, but it is is compelling. I would like to hear how your dad and mom made it here.
The WWII propaganda isn't quite thick enough. We need it in High-def!
Every war we've been involved in since the Revolution has been based on a lie. Let's see how the spin doctors use "high-def" to obcure the fact the US entered the war of our government's volition (starting with Lend-Lease) on the side of the COMMUNISTS thanks to our favorite Red FDR!
Oh for Pete's sake.
An excellent series. Thanks.
A tribute to a generation of males that just simply did the right moral thing unselfishly in a manly manner and returned home leaving the horror behind without whimpering or whining.
What a contrast to today's pathetic libtard girlie men, the metrosexual self-indulged whining narcissist, and culminating in the pathology of that patheric bowing, cowering, indecisive wimp in the WH. Feminist moms have a way of turning their male off-spring into small furry creatures.
I know many myself, and they have my every confidence in their will and their abilities. These young people give me hope for the future of our country. But I also fear is that they have to carry the freight of far too many who do not fully appreciate or understand what is at stake.
There's a fantastic video called The Battle of Stalingrad that will show you footage of the Soviets and nazis fighting in the rubble of Stalingrad and you'll see documented Russian footage of the unspeakable horrors the nazis committed against the Russians; the fascist swine hanged entire inhabitants of villages. You will get to see the actual horror the Russians endured. One of my grandmothers friends who made it to America was a teenage girl from a village called Babiy Yar. The nazis marched into the village, ordered the 150 or so inhabitants to get into the field. They were all machine gunned down. She survived and lay among the dead for two days before she felt safe enough to run away. Any Russian in their 60's> can tell you stories that are shocking.
My father was a prodigy, same with his brother and mom and dad. You could say everyone but me, and they do. Anyway, he attended Russia's premiere school for engineering and by his second year was providing the classroom instructions and lectures on behalf of the professor. In the former Soviet system [probably current as well] the govt offered the top students work in the KGB. My dad was offered but preferred working as a military engineer. His best friend did accept the offer. Two years later i was born and my parents applied for visas to the US. At the time no one was allowed from behind the iron curtain, especially if you're Jews which we are. Two years later my father is on the subway and runs into his friend that joined the KGB. He told him about applying for visas with no luck. One week later our visas were approved. His friend obviously played a role. My entire family was set free. We went to Israel, Spain, Italy, Austria before a family in Detroit sponsored us and we were allowed to enter. And a great honor was bestowed on my family, my uncle was hired as the Voice of America during the Cold War. Tragically he and his brother were killed in a car accident driving to Washington for the job.
Although were Russian we're proud American citizens.
To be perfectly fair, the one rifle for every 100 men was probably exaggerated, and even so it counted the entire Chinese Army or even those who were involved in the war effort period (to understand the massive difference this would make, consider in the Huaihai campaign, they deployed roughly 1,200,000 combat troops split right down the middle for regulars/irregulars, and at the most Conservative estimates well over THREE MILLION civilian laborers), as opposed to the guys they actually would send against us in theater (where about half of them would have some ranged weapon, the other half would have grenades, and everybody else was expected to pick up whatever was dropped).
Back then, they posed a MASSIVE, if poorly armed, threat to such important regions as the Raj, Korea, and Indochina. If anything, it's only gotten worse. They may have a smaller per capita force in the field, but their manpower has only grown, and they have become far better equipped.
The Jihad may be the primary threat now, but don't count the PRC out by a LONG shot.
Oh, and I am supposed to believe that the specter of German U-Boats committing murder of unarmed neutrals on the high seas was a lie? Or their hands in genocide in both wars? Or their attempts to arm Latin America against us dating back to the defeat of their Spanish ally in 1898? Or the perfidy of the Bolsheviks in 1917, 1939, and pretty much every year since then? Or the attacks of Soviet intelligence against Western interests even when we were "allies?"
If anything, I would rate WWI and WWII as perhaps even more important than the Revolution, not because the war to overthrow unelected rule by both Parliament and the Monarchy was unnecessary, but because for whatever our issues with the British crown, even during the Revolution they NEVER posed the threat to the ideals of the Revolution that those of Germany from Bismarck to Hitler did. You think rule from across the seas by a bunch of English Parliamentarians with no accountability to the colonies, the Monarchy, and their bureaucrats was bad? You should have SEEN what went on in Germany from 1848 to 1945 (not counting the Communist hellhole of East Germany, because that was more installed than home-grown) or those of the Soviets.
And considering the fact that the former came a whopping century before the the rise of the Kaiserreich, THAT is saying something.
And we NEVER entered the war for the Sake of the Bolsheviks. Lend-Lease started well over a year before Hitler backstabbed Stalin, at a time when it appeared that Moscow had made its alliances with Berlin and might even come into the war on Hitler's side if given proper inducement. Indeed, FDR largely rammed Lend-Lease through against the fanatical protests of not only the Fascists and the Isolationists, but also the Communists and Socialists, and we actually went as far as to threaten Moscow with war if they openly attacked the West.
FDR may has been many, many negative things, but he at least was a rather loyal friend of Democratic Republicanism, and who perhaps helped save at least a shred of European freedom. And for that, we must pay our dues to him, even if it is between rightfully needling him for his economic stupidity.
But no, you are just another Paulian fool. No concept of history, no recognition of the impossibility of isolation, no appreciation for the dawn of the Modern World allowing the enemy a back door into your Fortress America.
In the current war, in any future war, and in any past war, you would have been sheep to the slaughter were it not for the brave exertions of men and women to keep your ungrateful, ignorant rear free.
If you cannot read history, do this nation a favor and refrain from voting.
Hardly forgotten. It is taught at every school in the US, and probably most in the West. And rightfully so. If only it were not used as a platform to condemn the entire war.
To be perfectly fair, the Japanese regime was hardly National Socialist. Nationalist? Hell yes. But not Socialist.
And Mussolini's thugs may bring up another issue, depending on where we draw the line between Fascist and National Socialist.
Anyway, just a quibble.
The 750,000 should be 330,000. Only 6000 nazis made it back to Berlin alive, then they were killed by the advancing Soviet army.
I understand I have freind's that lived in L.A. They told me that MS-13 is taking over entire section's. I think compton cali witch used to be all black is now Hispanic. That there is a race war going on down there. The kid's in school are getting brainwashed. Coming home and telling there parent's that they must be "green" and not about FDR. I understand all of it and break's my heart. I'm a middle class individual I work with my hand's. There is almost nobody that speaks for me!
ditto
Thanks for the heads-up Dr. Baehr!
Gary Sinise is good on the Reagan Foundation videos.
The best shows I've watched on WWII were some of the Band of Brothers.
Really? I have never got the chance to see The War. But, as a WWII buff, I have always wanted to. Is it really that bad?
How untrained and under equipped to fight that war.
Can you imagine if today's media had been reporting on the war back then? Hawaii would be Japanese right now.
[...] the article here: ‘WWII In HD’ Provides Riveting History Lessons This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
May I recommend the movie 'Downfall' about the end of the Nazi regime. One of the best portrayals of Hitler I have ever seen by the actor Bruno Gantz.. Fair warning though it pulls no punches and is quite graphic in places, not suitable for children (It is also in German so subtitles I am afraid!). I consider it a movie you must watch along with Schindlers list. They help tell us why we fought, why we owe a debt of gratitude to the servicemen of all allied nations, and why we can never let this happen again (Militant Islam I am looking at you!).
not a bad show, but i think "The World AT War" was a much better show
The left doesn´t care for individuals. They just get in the way, the selfish buggers! Their utopian social engineering project works far better with groups; groups to set against each other; groups to organize. Divide and conquer. Race, class, gender. Be thankful that Burns only hit you over the head with one out of three. He has learned his lesson well, the spineless twerp.
It is of course despicable and fundamentally illiberal to teach people to see race, after we came so far in the other direction. But even the armed forces, which led the way in desegration and which used (and need) to judge people on their merits, are now in the hands of diversity bullies. If in America people were judged by what they do – which used to be the liberal ideal – and not by their group, Major Hasan would not have been on an army base. And a bizarre figure like Obama would not have become President.
It was stunning to me to see so much footage in color. I have been reading about WWII for about forty years (since I was nine years old). Rarely have I seen it in color. The remastering of the video was great. I am so used to seeing footage in black and white, that it was awing to watch in color. The footage was more graphic than anything I have seen before on the subject. The battle scenes with the sounds of the bullets flying were absolutely gripping.
Veterans always did have my gratitude, but this footage brings it home all the more. Two thumbs up!
[...] WWII in HD – review [...]
Wow you are dumb…
I think you mean its up to the American tax payer to go overseas and overthrow governments which pose no threat to us. WW2 happened because we were directly attacked and retaliated, this is understandable. Vietnam, Gulf Wars, Korea, all these conflicts were illegal and not officially declared wars. The rest of the world is useless because they have America which always shows up to "fix" the problems. Maybe if we kept to ourselves more other nations would take matters into their own hands. I dont think my taxes should be going to kill some freedom fighters in Iraq that see us as occupants. I dont think my taxes should go to building bridges we destroyed a few weeks earlier.
You have this classic idea of Good VS Evil because the US has instilled this idea that we must ALWAYS have an enemy. Nazi's, Communists, Terrorists… We are always good, they are always evil. We are always right as long as we spread democracy through the barrel of a gun.
Its funny how just a few years after defeating the evil that was Nazism we entered a cold war against our close allies, the Communists…
"They were still using horses"
*Everybody* was still using horses. Mythology aside, WWII was a horse-drawn war. 70% of the German Army used horses to pull their artillery and supply wagons (the Wehrmacht had more vets than doctors, just to care for all the draft animals), and the figure was higher for the Soviets. Both fielded cavalry (really mounted infantry) right through to the end- and indeed horses could go places that 40's motor vehicles couldn't. It was the US Army, uniquely, that had motor transport for nearly everything: any American encampment was a veritable parking lot.
What was shameful about our prewar posture was developing no tanks whatsoever beyond the pathetic T-1 'combat car' and M-2 Medium, and our foolish adherence to the shipbuilding limits of the London Naval Treaty even after it was clear that the Axis were flagrantly ignoring it.
"I think you mean its up to the American tax payer to go overseas and overthrow governments which pose no threat to us. WW2 happened because we were directly attacked and retaliated"
Right- the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Who taught you history, Bluto Blutarsky?
Germany posed no direct threat to us, and did not attack us. (Yes, Hitler declared war on Dec 9, but of course a technical state of war existed with Saddam also). We attacked Germany (actually, Morocco and Algeria) to bail out the British and liberate Europe- something we didn't have to do at all. We even agreed to a "Germany First" policy, diverting desperately-needed naval assets from the Pacfic to the Atlantic.
The *first* Enigma machine in Allied hands was smuggled to England by the Polish Resistance. And one I suppose should point out (not defending that piece-of-merde Bruckheimer movie) that the US Navy did capture the U-505 and its naval 4-wheel Enigma- but after the RN had already bagged one.
In both cases capturing the machine was hardly more important than capturing the code keys that went with it, which meant that Bletchley Park could decrypt Ultra messages at will until the Germans changed the codes. Without the keys Bletchley could only break about 20% and it took weeks.
As for "Letters from Iwo Jima," you would be right. He largely treats the war like it didn't matter who won or who lost. Oh, and according to the movie, we get no mention of either "hakkō ichiu" or fighting for their emperor!
…whatever our issues with the British crown, even during the Revolution they NEVER posed the threat to the ideals of the Revolution that those of Germany from Bismarck to Hitler did.
While I believe you, can you give me the juicy details? Just curious.
Hey Tony Fuck You. You piece of Shit. My father passed early this year and was a decorated veteran of that war. He and others fought so you can make a total asshole of yourself here. I would lose to put my foot up you ungrateful ass you troll bastard.
ADO, we are dumb? What threat was Mussolini to America?? Why did we attack him in 42 through Sicliy? Why did we attack Hitler, he was no threat to us in 1940. You're idea of being pure isolationist is a great idea but with every four years America changes foreign policy it wouldn't work. We have no choice but to do what we have done in the past. It was Harry Truman and the leftist who stop fighting wars to total Victory like we did in WWII. We don't need a declaration of war to fight in conflicts, I would rather the president declare total war on anyone we send troops to fight. I also would like to activate the sedition acts of 1914 and 42 both created by progressive leftist democrats so we will end the jane Fonda's, Michael Moores and Sean Penns. I believe in the total absolute destruction of our enemies as quickly as possible to end the war as fast as you can. Then we go in and fix the madness that caused these 'evil' bastards to pick a fight with us 'good' guys. You have a problem thinking we are just as bad as the bad guys. That is why none of this makes sense to you. The world is divided between good and evil it has been since the beginning or did that fly by you. Now are we perfect in our goodness. hell no. Who is perfect in this imperfect world. Europe, Russia, China, Africa, the middle east are all worthless, they have done nothing to contribute to this planet. The USA has done the most in the past 233 year to make this world a better place then all these loser countries combined in the past 5000 yrs. We don't have to apologized to losers, only a loser will apologies to other losers. Liberalism is a religion of losers who do nothing but continue to lose. However it is the American taxpayer that makes all life possible to exist on this ingrate planet. We owe nothing to no one. They owe us and this country should get off its ass any collect the bill this is over 100 years old or make these bums get with the program.
Token that was great film made by a german film company. It was brilliant and Gantz was beyond oscar material
BOOM'S MATTHEW GINSBURG TAKES LEAD ON HISTORY'S WWII IN HD WORKING WITH LOU REDA PRODUCTIONS
Boom Pictures Founder Matthew Ginsburg is fresh off a successful stint running production of HISTORY's epic 10-part WWII in HD, a color-film documentary series that presents human history's deadliest conflict for the first time ever in HD. HISTORY, via Pennsylvania-based Lou Reda Productions, entrusted Ginsburg to lead a production team of 40 in pulling together more than 1500 hours of rarely or never-before-seen original color film, gathered from overlooked archives and forgotten private collections around the world, and crafting it into a massive and compelling story. HISTORY recruited Ginsburg based on his reputation as a proven creative talent with experience as an executive producer/show runner, director and writer on non-fiction series and specials, as well as documentaries covering subjects as varied as the heavy metal band Metallica (Metallica: In Their Own Words, Fuse), the global AIDS crisis (Tracking the Monster, VH1), famous stories of survival in American History (Extreme History with Roger Daltrey, HISTORY), and life as a senior citizen (Uncle Frank, HBO Documentaries).
The visually captivating and critically acclaimed WWII in HD covers every aspect of the U.S. involvement in the war, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to D-Day; from the bloody battles of the Pacific Campaign to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The series weaves the larger story of the war around the experiences of 12 Americans who played an intimate role in the conflict. The result is a documentary experience that delivers a very personal take on a well explored topic and does so with a renewed sense of immediacy.
In addition to being the series' executive producer, Ginsburg played a major role in directing (5-episodes), co-directing (2 episodes) and co-writing the ten hours. Ginsburg and the team's challenge was to coordinate the arcs of the 12 diverse characters – ranging from nurse to war correspondent to U.S. Armed Forces personnel – with the archival footage, while also telling the larger story of the war. The project was an impressive editorial feat. Ginsburg and the writing team used original news sources, journals, letters and new interviews to inform the characters' stories. The team of producers, editors and assistant editors culled the best of the available footage (most of which was used in a representational manner) from the massive archive and then crafted scenes. Edited together with classic sound reels from the Library of Congress and the voice over performances of 12-actors who read the words of the series real life characters, WWII in HD presents a comprehensive and engaging narrative of the Second World War.
WWII in HD was produced for HISTORY by Lou Reda Productions in Easton, Pennsylvania. Scott and Lou Reda were executive producers and spearheaded the project from the beginning. Ginsburg collaborated with the Redas, as well as HISTORY. He worked closely with the team of 15 editors, who did the heavy lifting when it came to the task of telling the story visually. He also worked side by side with the series' sound editor and re-recording engineer Joe Raabe, who created the soundscape for nearly ten hours of silent film. Ginsburg proved his skills directing some of Hollywood's top actors. Emmy Award winner Gary Sinise narrates the series, while Justin Bartha, Rob Corddry, James Kyson Lee, LL Cool J, Rob Lowe, Josh Lucas, Jason Ritter, and Steve Zahn voiced eight of the individual stories, bringing the documentary characters' war years, to life.
"Matt's involvement in WWII in HD was pivotal," says HISTORY executive producer Michael Stiller. "He brings proven show running skills with a film-maker's sensibility. At his heart, he's a great storyteller who gets involved in every element of a project, and he's been doing exceptional work both individually and at Boom Pictures for years."
"WWII in HD is the kind of project you dream of making," says Ginsburg. "When HISTORY asked me to come aboard, I didn't hesitate to say yes. The opportunity to tell these intimate accounts of this critical event in human history, and to do so, using these rare, color archival films was a tremendous privilege. This project was a true collaborative effort with a team, as equally passionate about the creative process."
The series launch of WWII in HD – which debuted Sunday, November 15 from 9-11pm ET on HISTORY – claimed 2.6 million Total Viewers, 1.1 million Adults 25-54, 931,000 Adults 18-49 and a 2.1 HH rating. The premiere propelled HISTORY to the #1 cable network from 9-11pm in both Men 18-49 (670,000) and Men 25-54 (792,000). Additionally, the series is slated for DVD release in January.
Credits:
EP/Show Runner: Matthew Ginsburg
EP: Michael Stiller, David McKillop (HISTORY)
EP: Lou Reda, Scott Reda (Lou Reda Productions)
Producer (series): Liz Reph, Frederic Lumiere
Co-director Episodes 4 & 5: Matthew Ginsburg
Director Episodes 6-10: Matthew Ginsburg
Writers: Matthew Ginsburg, Liz Reph, Ben Kaplan, Hunter Dunn, Alec Michod and Bruce Kennedy
Editors: Alex Hall, David Jakubovic, Salamo Levin, Alain Jakubowicz, Marco Jakubowicz, Ilya Osovets, Jacqueline Cambas, John T. Wright, Frederic Lumiere, Sammy Jackson, Lucas Abel, Kelly Hurd
Additional Editing: Christopher Cooke, Steve Heffner, Aaron Weisblatt & James Coblentz
Supervising Sound Editor and Rerecording Mixer (series): Joe Raabe (Gramercy Post )
Series Produced by: Lou Reda Productions for HISTORY
About Ginsburg:
Matthew Ginsburg is an award-winning executive producer and director. For the past seven years, he's been creating, developing and producing nonfiction programming with Boom Pictures, the company he launched in 2002. Matthew is also an established Executive Producer/show runner, who collaborates with network development and production teams to help shape and shepherd outside projects that prove to be especially challenging.
Matthew recently finished collaborating on a pair of high-profile projects: the (10×60) docu-series WWII in HD (HISTORY/Lou Reda Productions), and the (6×60) docu-series Pitbulls & Parolees (Animal Planet/44 Blue.) Recently, Matthew executive-produced and directed the Fuse documentary Metallica: In Their Own Words. Additional projects include Animal Planet's (8×30) docu-series Living With The Wolfman, a show he was brought in to redevelop with UK-based Tigress Productions. Matthew also executive produced two season's of A&E's docu-series Inked, executive produced and directed the feature-length, award-winning documentary Tracking the Monster (VH1), and co-created, developed, directed and ran Extreme History with Roger Daltrey, a series for HISTORY.
Before starting Boom Pictures, Matthew spent seven years creating, producing and directing long and short form nonfiction projects for broadcast and cable clients, including VH1, HISTORY, USA, HBO Documentaries, MTV News and NBC News. Notable projects include the award-winning feature-length documentary Uncle Frank (HBO), HISTORY's first live broadcast Live From Pearl Harbor, 100 Greatest Artists of Rock and Roll (the countdown special that launched one of VH1's most successful franchises), NBC's Concert for America, Legends: Bruce Springsteen, and RockStory (nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award).
Matthew started his career at WRGB (CBS affiliate – Albany, NY) where he produced more than 900 nightly newscasts and a number of special projects, winning three Associated Press Awards for his work. Matthew is a graduate of Ithaca College's Park School of Communications.
About Boom:
Boom Pictures is a team of New York-based freelance creative talent that develops, produces and directs series, specials, documentaries, commercials, scripted content and digital programming. Boom also consults network development and production teams to shape outside projects that offer special challenges. Launched in fall '02, the company is led by Matthew Ginsburg, an award-winning executive producer, director, and show runner.
Can you imagine if our current leadership ran our effort in WWII? As Michael Savage would say, we'd all be speaking German or be lampshades by now.
I definitely agree that the Russians were grossly under-represented here. During the whole war, more than 70% of the German military was on the Russian front. Latest estimates are that they suffered 27 million dead, or about 15% of their pre-war population. Those kinds of losses would have knocked us out of the war for certain.
I just read an awesome article with the filmmaker Frederick Lumiere who directed the first episodes and conceived of the idea. Boy these guys went through a lot to find that footage. Here's a link to the article:
http://www.shakefire.com/interviews/movie/frederi...
I've seen his other film "Tomorrow is Today". Completely different but what is was excellent. Made me cry nonstop.
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