The Cold Blue

The Cold Blue is a 2018 documentary composed from 90 hours of "lost" footage director William Wyler used for his 1944 documentary The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress.[3][2]

The Cold Blue
Film poster
Directed byErik Nelson
Based onThe Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress
by William Wyler
Produced byErik Nelson, Peter Hankoff
CinematographyWilliam Wyler
Edited byErik Nelson
Music byRichard Thompson
Release date
  • June 16, 2018 (2018-06-16)[1]
Running time
72 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States

The Memphis Belle documentary was very highly regarded.[3] 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 [the footage] to breathtaking immediacy".[4][2][5] When the restoration of the Memphis Belle documentary was finished Nelson used the footage to cut a brand new documentary—The Cold Blue.[3]

The film is 72 minutes long, and premiered at the 2018 AFI Docs.[6] It was then broadcast by HBO.[7][8]

The National Review asserted the film showed viewers a "level of everyday heroism on offer [that] almost surpasses our capacity to absorb it."[9] Variety described the efforts Nelson made for the soundtrack for the film. The original film was, of course, without sound.[5] So Nelson tracked down the handful of B-17 bombers 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
  1. "World Premiere of 'The Cold Blue' at the National Archives". National Archives. June 11, 2018. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  2. Carrie Goldstein (2019-05-30). "Review: 'The Cold Blue' painstakingly restores vivid WWII footage of 8th Air Force missions". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-03-30. More than 70 years later, director Nelson learned that 34 reels of "Memphis Belle" outtakes existed in the vaults of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and decided to repurpose them for an all-new film. But this noble task required a painstaking, frame-by frame, digital process to repair the scratched footage and restore it to its original clean state.
  3. Erik Nelson (2019-06-03). "Nostalgia Ain't What It Used to Be". Talkhouse. Retrieved 2020-03-30. Erik Nelson is the director of The Cold Blue, which airs on HBO on June 6, and the 2017 documentary A Gray State. He is the producer of Werner Herzog's award-winning documentaries Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the World, Into the Abyss and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. His previous work as a director includes the Harlan Ellison documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, which premiered at SXSW in 2008.
  4. Frank Scheck (2019-05-21). "'The Cold Blue': Film Review | NYFF 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-03-30. Discovered in the vaults of the National Archives, the 16mm footage has been beautifully restored to breathtaking immediacy.
  5. Jazz Tangcay (2019-12-09). "Erik Nelson Wants to Preserve the Past With 'The Cold Blue' World War II Documentary". Variety magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-30. David C. Hughes was the sound editor on "The Cold Blue." He brought sound equipment from The Skywalker Ranch and spent four days recording the sounds of the B-17 planes. Later on, one of the planes the team had worked on crashed, and shortly after, a veteran that Nelson interviewed passed away.
  6. Daniele Alcinii (2018-06-14). "Exclusive trailer: Erik Nelson's "The Cold Blue"". RealScreen Magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-30. The 72-minute film is constructed from footage captured for acclaimed director William Wyler's war documentary, The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, and serves as a tribute to the men of the 8th Air Force who flew dangerous missions throughout the Second World War.
  7. "The Cold Blue". Home Boxoffice.
  8. Richard Thompson - 'The Cold Blue' (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Score). YouTube. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  9. Kyle Smith (2019-05-21). "A Bomber's-Eye View of World War II in The Cold Blue". National Review. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
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