BBC History of World War II
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Canada
DVD details
Actor: Artist Not ProvidedBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1800 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-07-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
DVD Reviews of BBC History of World War II
DVD Review: Disappointing...
Summary: 3 Stars
Docu-drama sums up a lot of this series. I watched the two DVDs on Auschiwitz. The BBC felt the need to dress up some apparent Germans in Nazi uniforms to recreate certain events. One specific example was an escape from Auschwitz. They actually recreating the majority of the breakout -- right down to the guard tower which let the escapees go free.
While such antics might be needed for today's youth and those without an imagination, they seem like cheap stunts to me. The stunts ruined the series for me.
To be fair, there are some slightly interesting bits. One example is how the producers recreate other concentration camps from blueprints. It is all computer-created, but still, seeing the camps as they were built during WWII is chilling. Being able to walk through a virtual gas chamber then from the chambers to the ovens is heart-wrenching.
The docu-drama dress-up antics detract from an otherwise interesting series. There are other, higher quality documentaries out there which don't insult a viewer's intelligence.
DVD Review: Wonderful outlook on history
Summary: 5 Stars
I really recommend bying this collections to all peple interested int he hisory of the 2nd world war! It gives a great overview on the events of that time. A nice collectons of dvd films put in one place.DVD Review: World War 2 redux
Summary: 3 Stars
The first two discs showing the rise of national socialism are excellent,with much of it archival footage and well presented.Unfortunately,most of the rest contains simulated action,voice overs,interviews with survivors, somber music, pan and scan shots of battlefields,concentration camps,etc(as they look today)If you want the real footage and a great narration (Olivier),The World At War is the much better set.The dvds here are of good quality but each title is a seperate documentary in itself and in total has no cohesion to the massive subject.The rating rests primarily with the first 2 discs, which are superb.An overall expensive disappointment,imo.DVD Review: comprehensive history of the 'big 'war
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent,deeply researched video of a massive war. Giving all sides of the conflict adds a great deal of interest. Even those of us who lived through it can learn something new and enlightening.It isn't any more understandable for all of this insight.DVD Review: annoying anti-American viewpoints
Summary: 1 Stars
The sections on "Battlefields" contain annnoying anti-American propaganda aimed at General Mark Clark, Fifth Army Commander in Italy, and General John Lucas, commander of the Anzio beachhead. Professor Holmes, who never saw a battlefield except from a safe distance, does NOT interview anyone to defend the actions of either General Clark or General John Lucas.
In the chapter on "Bomber", Professor Holmes presents only the story of British aircraft bombing Germany and completely excludes any mention of the US Air Force. In the chapter on "Alamein", there is no mention of the 400 tanks President Roosevelt and General Marshall sent the British Army. After listening to Holmes, you would think the British won WWII by themselves.
Description of BBC History of World War II
How could a political party as fundamentally evil and overtly racist as the Nazis come to power? Why was Japan, known for its admirable treatment of POWs in WWI, responsible for such grim atrocities in the Second World War? This comprehensive collection not only examines the details of the conflict (the Battle of Moscow, the campaign against German U-boats, the RAF bomber offensive), but digs deeper to attempt to answer the questions that still haunt us. Through startling archive footage and eyewitness testimony, this 12-disc set offers a unique perspective and true understanding of what actually happened.DVD Features:
Documentaries:Battle of the Atlantic includes a 50-minute documentary on merchant seamenHorror in the East includes a 50-minute documentary on the Indian Army and a 60-minute documentary on Burma
Featurette:D-Day: Reflections of Courage includes a 20-minute making-of featurette
Introduction:Award-winning writer, filmmaker and Creative Director of BBC History Laurence Rees provides introduction and closing words to collection
Other:D-Day: Reflections of Courage includes 30 minutes of eyewitness accounts Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State includes six follow-up discussions hosted by award-winning journalist Linda Ellerbee
With 30 hours of programming in 10 volumes and three full-length bonus programs, the BBC History of World War II goes beyond even The World at War for its depth of scope, its breadth of analyses, and the high quality of its production values. This ambitious project by producer Laurence Rees, which also features a collector's booklet, is full of startling archival footage and illuminating eyewitness interviews that bring to life some of the most monumental events from the most monumental war in human history.
The focus on this set is clearly the war in Europe (only one disc, Horror in the East, is dedicated to the war with Japan) as told from an even-handed British perspective: interviews with German citizens make it understandable how Hitler appealed to a shattered and defeated nation, for example, and the The Road to War scrutinizes how a British government was caught unprepared for a re-armed Germany bent on domination. The collection is filled with poignantly fascinating moments, such as when an aging American veteran revisits the Omaha Beach he stormed on D-Day, and meets the elderly German who, as a teenager, was defending that section of the beach with his machine gun, or footage of Hitler's early political speeches, raging promises of things to come.
Roughly chronologically arranged, the set starts with The Nazis: A Warning from History, and works its way through all facets of the war, including the legacy of the Holocaust. (Some of the titles were previously released as single DVDs.) The presentation is particularly impressive. Each series has its own style: Dunkirk is a drama-documentary structured like a miniseries and reenactments are deftly interwoven with archival footage in a convincing motif. In War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin, German and Russian veterans recall with chilling candor their particular universe of battle, and rare color combat footage combined with newly declassified Soviet documents offer new perspectives on the subject. The collection succeeds brilliantly in making it clear to a modern-day viewer what it was really like to live through those times.
For the war buff, the history enthusiast, the educator, or someone looking for a gift for any of the above, the BBC History of World War?II is a title to consider. Even dedicated viewers of the History Channel will find something new and fascinating here. --Dan Vancini
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