by Rick McGinnes
MetroNews- Monday, October 24 2005

PICK OF THE NIGHT: History Television is doing something special tonight starting at 9 p.m., when Kevin McMahon's documentary The Face Of Victory will run commercial free, the better to showcase the film's poetry and creative ambition.

Using nothing but archival photographs, the odd snippet of Winston Churchill, F.D.R., Harry S. Truman and other period voices, and Alex Pauk and Alexina Louie's moving score, the film is an attempt to recreate the last lurching months of World War Two and the first months of a tenuous peace.

McMahon's film is a welcome departure from what we've come to expect — monochrome newsreel footage of tanks crashing through bushes, static interviews with veterans and academic "experts," and the odd bit of usually unsuccessful modern reconstruction of a battle or skirmish, tied together with portentous narration.