Hitler’s Lost Sub
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Documentary: B-
Roy Scheider narrates Hitler’s Lost Sub, a 2000
installment of the award winning series Nova, which starts with an early
history of Germany and submarine aggression, then gets to the relatively recent
discovery of an unidentified U-Boat that a diving team has found off the New
Jersey coast. Though there is a new
market for information on all kinds of warfare, but Wolfgang Petersen’s Das
Boat has made interest in U-Boats of particular interest.
Though there is coverage about the boats, the special is
more interested in covering and uncovering a series of mysteries and the
eventual reconstruction of a more thorough history about this specific boat and
clearer idea about the final days before Germany’s surrender. This is one of the more interesting mixes of
old and new footage, especially with the underwater deep diving detour. The result is a worthy new chapter about
WWII and U-Boats that does not repeat the obvious. That is not easy to do, but this installment succeeds. Leave it to Nova.
The 1.33 X 1 image is during the end of such PBS/WGBH
production before Public TV started to embrace 16 X 9 HD images ahead of almost
all the other networks. It looks good
for its age and the unusual mix of footage.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surround information, but is very
well edited and recorded. The only
extras include printable PDF teaching materials and a weblink in DVD-ROM form
and descriptive services for the visually impaired and a weblink.
- Nicholas Sheffo
