Colour of War: The Anzacs is a three part Australian TV series narrated byRussell Crowe, first shown in 2004 onNine Network. It details, in rare colour footage, the story of theANZACs during bothWorld War II, theKorean War, and theVietnam War.
The series was produced byFilm Australia in association with TWI Australia Pty Ltd, the Australian arm of the international production company for theNine Network, along withTelevision New Zealand’s Internal Production Unit.[1] The series was narrated byRussell Crowe, whose grandfather was a war cinematographer. Further, the research found rare colour footage of troops in Crete, Italy and North Africa in the 1940s, in the snows of Korea in the 1950s and the jungles of Vietnam in the 1960s. Much of the material was shot unofficially by civilians and servicemen, providing a direct account of life at that time.
According toNational Film and Sound Archive:[2]
This is the story of Australia and New Zealand at war as never seen before. For the first time, only original colour footage is used to paint a vividly detailed picture of these closely allied nations, from the build up to World War II to the end of theVietnam War. Newly discovered films and home movies along with diary and letter extracts allow viewers a very personal connection with the war experience, both on the battlefield and on the homefront. In colour, that shared history becomes even more intimate and involving.
Another review by Lisa Pryor ofThe Sydney Morning Herald comments that:[3]
This is not just another war documentary, the kind that are endlessly spooled on pay television. It is striking and remarkable, using colour footage from as early as the 1930s that shows Australians at war at home and overseas. Pieced together into a semi-chronological narrative are home movies of sons preparing to leave for war, shipwrecked POWs being rescued by a submarine and pictures of Singapore, complete with hand-drawn rickshaws, before it fell to the Japanese. It takes a little while to adjust to the colour footage, which seems so much associated with the era after World War II. But that is the strength of this series, that the soldiers, prisoners and refugees look so much like people who could be alive today. Actor Russell Crowe is the narrator, an appropriate choice given that his grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer in the Solomon Islands during World War II.
At theAPRA Music Awards of 2005, composerNeil Sutherland won Best Television Theme for his work onColour of War: The Anzacs.[4]
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