WWII in HD thoughts
I’ve been watching the taped WWII in HD series on my TV this past week. I usually always tape stuff so that I can forward through the commercials, after all who cares about the commercials? Well maybe a marketing department in some tower in a big city.
I, being an amateur World War II historian started to watch the series with a critical eye, like I do with all documentaries or movies pertaining to that period in history. After only a few minutes I’m already seeing errors that get my hackles up. I pause the recording to tell my girl friend about the mistake in video of ships and planes out of historical context and she basically says that if I hadn’t told her about them she would have never known.
Often times, while continuing to watch, I’ll scoff to myself about the additional errors, but not for this TV series. I started to try and chill out about the inaccuracies and start listening to the stories being told by the men and women who were there. After all I bet they don’t care if the snippet of film found by the film maker was completely 100% accurate that tried to give some visual context to their story.
I then got to thinking about how 60+ years ago the person carrying the camera that recorded the events happening through their lens didn’t care that 60 years later if they were used exactly and precisely in context in some documentary I’d be watching in the safety of my living room. They were trying to show what was happening in the war. In excruciatingly gory detail so that the folks back on the home front or even the generations that have come since then could get some understanding of what went on as one individual said, the events that were burned into his soul and would never be forgotten by him.
So is the WWII in HD series perfect? No, it isn’t. But it is perfect in the story being told by the individuals that lived through it. I have never personally known what war is like, I’ve not fought in a war, or been touched by it, except by seeing, reading, and hearing what did happen from the people that did live through it.
So from now on I hope to use a less critical eye when it comes to World War II history, after all, except for some historians, amateur or otherwise, who would notice that the snippets of video were out of historical context?? Could the film maker have done better? Maybe, but is the story any less authentic that was being told by the individuals in the show? It’s their history, their story, not mine.
I, being an amateur World War II historian started to watch the series with a critical eye, like I do with all documentaries or movies pertaining to that period in history. After only a few minutes I’m already seeing errors that get my hackles up. I pause the recording to tell my girl friend about the mistake in video of ships and planes out of historical context and she basically says that if I hadn’t told her about them she would have never known.
Often times, while continuing to watch, I’ll scoff to myself about the additional errors, but not for this TV series. I started to try and chill out about the inaccuracies and start listening to the stories being told by the men and women who were there. After all I bet they don’t care if the snippet of film found by the film maker was completely 100% accurate that tried to give some visual context to their story.
I then got to thinking about how 60+ years ago the person carrying the camera that recorded the events happening through their lens didn’t care that 60 years later if they were used exactly and precisely in context in some documentary I’d be watching in the safety of my living room. They were trying to show what was happening in the war. In excruciatingly gory detail so that the folks back on the home front or even the generations that have come since then could get some understanding of what went on as one individual said, the events that were burned into his soul and would never be forgotten by him.
So is the WWII in HD series perfect? No, it isn’t. But it is perfect in the story being told by the individuals that lived through it. I have never personally known what war is like, I’ve not fought in a war, or been touched by it, except by seeing, reading, and hearing what did happen from the people that did live through it.
So from now on I hope to use a less critical eye when it comes to World War II history, after all, except for some historians, amateur or otherwise, who would notice that the snippets of video were out of historical context?? Could the film maker have done better? Maybe, but is the story any less authentic that was being told by the individuals in the show? It’s their history, their story, not mine.
Labels: history, world war ii
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