As an Australian we have a similar doco for our country, and historical footage looks just as odd converted from B&W. It loses its authentic look. Also as a 'foreigner' it's interesting to note other reviewers complaining about "it's not America, that's a continent" or it's politically biased Left/Right/whatever.
Americans are so Americentric that they can't see themselves as the rest of the world sees them. Besides 'America', we call it many names - USA, the United States of America, United States, etc and although I know Yanks like to simplify it to just "the States" that term usually means something different elsewhere. In Australia it means those States that are part of the Commonwealth of Australia that aren't Territories such as ACT and NT.
My point is that documentaries like this aren't necessarily meant for just the country they refer to and therefore are written in global terminology. In that respect I found the doco suitably informative, spoken in vernacular I easily understood. Personally I don't think the colourisation (that's colorization in Yank-speak) adds anything, a bit too 'lipstick on a pig' if anything. I don't mind black and white at all, it's what I grew up with and seems fitting.
Americans are so Americentric that they can't see themselves as the rest of the world sees them. Besides 'America', we call it many names - USA, the United States of America, United States, etc and although I know Yanks like to simplify it to just "the States" that term usually means something different elsewhere. In Australia it means those States that are part of the Commonwealth of Australia that aren't Territories such as ACT and NT.
My point is that documentaries like this aren't necessarily meant for just the country they refer to and therefore are written in global terminology. In that respect I found the doco suitably informative, spoken in vernacular I easily understood. Personally I don't think the colourisation (that's colorization in Yank-speak) adds anything, a bit too 'lipstick on a pig' if anything. I don't mind black and white at all, it's what I grew up with and seems fitting.