''The Cold Blue'' is a 2018 documentary composed from 90 hours of "lost" footage director

William Wyler William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''The Best Years of O ...

used for his 1944 documentary '' The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress''. The ''Memphis Belle'' documentary was very highly regarded. Unfortunately all existing prints were faded and scratched. In 2016 documentary film-maker Erik Nelson learned the original raw footage from which the film had been cut had been safely deposited in the US National Archives. The original prints were also scratched, faded, and dusty, but had enough information so that new artificial intelligence techniques, frame by frame restoration, and color grading "beautifully restored he footageto breathtaking immediacy" When the restoration of the ''Memphis Belle'' documentary was finished Nelson used the footage to cut a brand new documentary - ''The Cold Blue''. The film is 72 minutes long, and premiered at the 2018 AFI Docs. It was then broadcast by '' Home Boxoffice''. A review published in ''

The National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...

'' asserted the film showed viewers a ''"level of everyday heroism on offer hatalmost surpasses our capacity to absorb it."'' '' Variety'' described the efforts Nelson made for the soundtrack for the film. The original film was, of course, without sound. So Nelson tracked down the handful of

B-17 bombers The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

that remain in flying condition, and used modern sound equipment to capture their exact sound. The film's narration is taken from interviews with the few surviving veterans of the 8th Air Force.

References

External links

* https://variety.com/2019/artisans/awards/erik-nelson-the-cold-blue-world-war-ii-documentary-1203430798/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Cold Blue 2018 documentary films American documentary films 2010s American films