Colour of War: The ANZACs (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	135:35
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (27:57)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Paul Rudd Ben Ulm
Studio Distributor	Film Australia Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    After the success of Britain At War in Colour, The British Empire In Colour, and America's War - World War II in Colour  , it was only natural that an attempt would be made to produce a documentary dedicated to footage from around Australia and New Zealand. With the other documentaries only containing real colour footage (there was nothing artificially colourised at all), there is obviously only a very small amount of source material available from the thousands of hours shot during the last century. The search started a couple of years ago with a request to anyone who may have any old colour footage lying around their shed or tucked away in a cupboard, unseen for decades. It didn't matter if it was not related specifically to Australia or New Zealand's military efforts, it could merely show the home life in the countries during the wars.

    What resulted from that around-the-world search is a two-hour plus documentary of stunning footage showing the efforts by Australians and New Zealanders (or ANZACS as they have now become known) in wars and at home. Narrated by New Zealand's favourite son and Australia's favourite New Zealander-turned-Aussie son Russell Crowe, it begins with colour footage from just before World War II, showing marching men in an early Anzac Day parade.

     Playing out over three episodes and over two hours, we see Aussies and Kiwis heading off to battle in various parts of Europe, the Pacific, and South East Asia. There is footage of Korea, some amazing colour vision of nuclear testing in the Pacific, and plenty of action from Vietnam. Interspersed amongst all these conflicts is the vision of ordinary Australians and New Zealanders, at home coping with daily life during war time as best they can. In addition to Russell Crowe's narration there are substantial numbers of voiceovers with letter and diary readings lending a real first hand account to the vision. A lot of the colour footage is really quite remarkable, looking like it was shot just yesterday and not 1940. The colour footage itself brings a sense of immediacy and really does provide a new angle on some subjects you may have only seen before in black and white.

    There are three episodes making up this series: 

1) Children Of The Empire (45:06)

    Wherever Britain goes, Australia and New Zealand followed, at least they did in 1939 when the Brits declared war on Germany. Colour footage in this episode includes World War II footage from Greece, Singapore, The Battle of Midway, and some personal footage from the collection of Robert Menzies who toured a blitz ravaged London. There is also considerable footage from life back in Australia and New Zealand during the 1940s that makes for fascinating viewing.

2)  Fighting Back  (45:16)

    This episode sees World War II in full swing and follows it through to its conclusion. Lots of colour footage from Australian and New Zealand home life, the visiting American GIs and rare footage of Anzac POWs returning from Japanese prison camps.

3) The War That Never Ends (45:14)

    World War II is over and with it comes a bay boom and then the start of the Cold War, with the communist threat ever present. Korea becomes yet another foreign location that Australians and New Zealanders will be asked to fight in. Rounding out this episode is some disturbing footage of Vietnam from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s.

Video

    When you are looking at colour footage from before World War II, the quality really doesn't seem to matter too much.

    You will constantly pinch yourself that what you are seeing is real colour footage and has not been colourised or altered in any way (other than a little cleaning of grime and dirt). In fact if ever there were problems with source material not being as pristine as you would like, this is it. With colour film dating from the mid 1930s onwards it is likely to have all manner of imperfections, holes, scratches, and worse. But make no mistake, a significant amount of work went into restoring the film and some of the results are stunning. Some footage looks like it was shot yesterday, it is that clean and sharp. Some is quite grubby and is filled with artefacts of all manner and size, but it really doesn't matter, it is all equally as fascinating.

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Remember with the age of the material on offer here, factors such as the sharpness of the transfer and the amount of shadow detail is likely to differ greatly. Some of the material is excellent, with good sharp images and no shadow detail problems. Other examples are very ordinary with fuzzy images or lost clarity throughout. Grain is pretty much evident on most of the vision, but it is inherent in the source and cannot be complained about. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are what this series is all about, and this transfer does not disappoint. There are no problems other than those inherent in the source (such as fading or cross colouration and oversaturation).

    There are no compression artefacts in the transfer. Film artefacts as mentioned above are obviously everywhere, though many have been cleaned away. It really wasn't expected to see them all removed.
   
    There is only one set of subtitles present. These are in English for the Hearing Impaired and are mostly accurate.

    This is a dual layered disc and the layer change is well hidden at 27:57 during episode two.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A fairly basic audio selection graces this disc, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack as the only option.

    Dialogue is pretty much all this is about, being a narrative documentary. This is handled well with no obvious problems. Some of the older radio broadcasts of Robert Menzies and Winston Churchill feature all manner of hiss, distortion, and generally mixed fidelity, but this is totally expected. Overall this soundtrack does the job expected. There are also no audio sync issues.

    The score is quite haunting. It captures the soaring pride and the total devastation that is war with equal measure.

    There is no surround channel or subwoofer usage

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

     This disc is not available in Region 1.
 

    The makers have done a remarkable job to give us a documentary that is both visually stunning and thought-provoking at the same time. To see, in full colour, the hardships endured by both military and civilians during World War II, the nuclear testing in the Pacific, and some of the horrors of both Korea and Vietnam is truly amazing

    The video is remarkable. Forget the issues with the source material. The transfer has seen a lot of time and effort put in to it and it certainly shows. This is film footage that any history buff should own.

    The audio is as good as it needs to be.

    There no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall