The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)
by Hugh Raggett, Ted Childs, David Elstein, Martin Smith (VII), John Pett
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DVD details
Actor: Andr? Beaufre, David Belchem, Laurence Olivier, Sir Max Aitken, Stephen AmbroseDirector: David Elstein, Hugh Raggett, John Pett, Martin Smith (VII), Ted Childs
Cinematographer: Eva Braun
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Black & White, Box set, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1357 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-08-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
DVD Reviews of The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)
DVD Review: A Classic Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1970's documentary is a great classic. Great footage and editorial comment by a number of historians as well as the combatants from all sides of the conflict. While this British produced piece shows a lot from the Anglo perspective, it really does have a good balance covering the war in it's entire scope. If you like a flag flying, victory by sheer might type of story, this is probably NOT the documentary for you.
If you want to get the "feel" of the war from the London blitz to the siege of Stalingrad to the beaches of the Pacific, you'll like this terrific classic piece.
DVD Review: The World at War 30th Anniversary Edition
Summary: 5 Stars
I first knew of "The World at War" in re-runs through cable TV. I had seen bits and pieces but never watched any one episode. When I became interested in studying the Second World War, I decided to purchase this DVD set.
To me, what is important in any documentary, is not only the footage of the war itself but also the interviews from people who lived during that particular period. At the time that this documentary was made, many who lived through the events of the Second World War were still alive in 1974. The World at War contains a wealth of information through personal interviews given by the politicians of the U.S., and Great Brittan, soldiers from the U.S., Japan, Great Brittan and Germany and the citizens of these countries. A few who lived through the holocaust were also present to tell their stories. Even former members of Hitler's S.S. were interviewed as well as Hitler's personal valet and his 22 year old secretary, Traudl Junge.
This documentary covers all areas of World War II and contains extensive footage of battles both at home and abroad.
The DVD set contained all 26 regular - 50 minute long episodes and 12 hours of bonus material.
The bonus material contained two 90 minute programs of "Hitler's Final Solution", one 90 Minute program of "Hitler's Germany" and a 45 Minute Interview of Hitler's secretary. Extended footage of German citizens, soldiers and high ranking officials was also included. One episode entitled, "The Two Deaths of Adolph Hitler" interviewed people who were trying to determine if the charred remains that they examined was really that of Adolph Hitler.
Many of the interviews in the bonus material, as well as war footage, is repeated from the original episodes but contained additional footage not seen in the regular episodes. Sir Laurence Olivier narrated the 26 episodes. Eric Porter narrated some of the bonus material.
2 additional programs covering the making of The World at War were also included.
For someone wanting a complete and thorough look at all sides of WWII, this DVD set is a must and is suitable for most audiences.
DVD Review: Great
Summary: 4 Stars
It was not long after my family moved into the very first home we had ever owned, in our line's history, that I recall watching, with my dad, a really good television show called The World At War, which recounted the history of the Second World War. The documentary series was produced between 1971 and 1974 by Jeremy Isaacs of Thames Television and featured many key interview subjects, from the common soldier in all the armies to major powerbrokers such as Lord Mountbatten, war correspondent and novelist Lawrence Durrell, Hitler's architect and Armaments Minister Albert Speer, who disingenuously tries to weasel out of his responsibility for the Nazi genocide, German Admiral Karl D?nitz, Averell Harriman, Alger Hiss, film star James Stewart, who served in the US Army 8th Airforce, and General Eisenhower's driver, Kay Summersby, and Adolf Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge. There are even segments with the last survivor of the assassination plot against Hitler, Ewald Heinrich Von Kleist. It is an amazing filmic and journalistic feat that was accomplished, for so many aspects of the war that are missing from other attempts at visually documenting it are here. Isaacs got many honors for the series, from a knighthood to the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, L'Ordre National du M?rit, and numerous Emmy Awards.
Watching this series, again on DVD, and thinking back on my dad's removed fascination with it, when originally aired, made me realize that those days with my dad are now farther removed from the present than the war years the series documents were from his watching of them. Yet, I know why he was so rapt by the series, despite its flaws, and the fact that a more thorough and unbiased video history of the war is just begging to be made. It's because the series wisely focused on the ordinary person, like him. This focus undoes almost all the biases the rest of the series promotes, and makes the whole DVD set an easy recommendation for history buffs, yet to be used as a starting point, not an end all and be all. This series was not just the tales of the giants: Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Tojo, Roosevelt, Rommel, Mussolini, Eisenhower. It was tales of the ordinary man, and how his contributions changed the world.
Watching this series also nails the current lie that we are involved in some global struggle, a `clash of civilizations', on par with the World Wars, when we are really avaricious and unaccountable myopics absurdly trying to fend off some puny backwater terrorists. This series shows those claims for what they are- lies. Now is not a time of giants that will be studied in the future for their contributions in moving the world forward, but of small men with small agendas, which is a thing quite different, in the worst possible ways, from being ordinary men, like my dad was; ordinary men who helped change human history for the better, in The World At War.
DVD Review: tour d'force
Summary: 5 Stars
A subtle and powerful presentation of history. Factually excellent the series introduction specifies the intent and methodology comprehensively, and I strongly recommend viewing this intro.
Interviews with actual senior participants presenting their view of events, reasoning for same is often powerful but mostly trite(the poor reasoning!) while always interesting - all sides represented and well balanced. The inserting of original footage is often spectacular (Leni Refinstahl in particular)
I found mysef constantly surprised by the basic stupidity, awesome incompetancy, political greed & the indominable capacity for humanity to survive.
Truely excellent! I am sure many film historians have learnt much from this series, Ken Burns amongst them, bravo!
DVD Review: The Most definitive Series on WW2 I Have Ever Seen ... You Must Have This!
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeremy Isaacs did an extraordinarily thorough and exhaustive series with this piece of work. I am a WW2 documentary collector and I am up to, easily, over 150 DVD's, but this remains my favorite, even though mazaingly-enough, it was produced over 30 years ago. In order to truly appreciate this work, one must appreciate the thorough nature of the series itself: For example, we see living interviews with Manteuffel, Kaye Sommers (Ike's driver), Doenitz, Karl Wolff, Albert Speer, etc ... as well, the illstrated maps are easily to follow and eductaional in their explanation of movement .... the archival footage of troops, battlegrounds, Nazi Germany, Axis and Allied leaders, the before-after shots of France+Germany+England etc ..... the interviews with Jeremy Isaacs, Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers), plus shots of ALL the political eaders (Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, etc) ..... Altogther, if you want a true and living history of WW2 and the WAY IT WAS ... you MUST have this documentary .... it may be a bit pricey, but that is becuase it is worth every penny and the fact it was created in 1974, yet still remain the quintessential collectors piece, speaks volumes in and of itself ... Hats off to you, Sir Jeremy!
Description of The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)
Sir Jeremy Isaacs highly deserves the numerous awards for documentaries he has earned: the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, l'Ordre National du M?rit, an Emmy, and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His epic The World at War remains unsurpassed as the definitive visual history of World War II.The Second World War was different from other wars in thousands of ways, one of which was the unparalleled scope of visual documents kept by the Axis and Allies of all their activities. As a result, this war is understood as much through written histories as it is through its powerful images. The Nazis were particularly thorough in documenting even the most abhorrent of the atrocities they were committing--in a surprising amount of color footage. The World at War was one of the first television documentaries that exploited these resources so completely, giving viewers an unbelievable visual guide to the greatest event in the 20th century. This is to say nothing of the excellent, comprehensible narrative. Some highlights:
- A New Germany 1933-39: early German and Nazi documentation of Hitler's rise to power through the impending attack on Poland
- Whirlwind: the early British losses in the blitz in the skies over Britain and in North Africa
- Stalingrad: the turning point of the war and Germany's first defeat
- Inside the Reich--Germany 1940-44: one of the most fascinating documentaries that exists on life inside Nazi Germany, from Lebensborn to the Hitler Youth
- Morning: prior to Saving Private Ryan, one of the only unromanticized views of the Normandy invasion
- Genocide: this film is one of the most widely shown introductions to the Holocaust
- Japan 1941-45: although The World at War is decidedly focused more on the European theater, this is an important look into wartime Japan and its expansion--early 20th-century history that lead to Japan's role in World War II is superficial
- The bomb: another widely shown documentary of the Manhattan Project, the Enola Gay, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki
The World at War will remain the definitive visual history of World War II, analogous to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. No serious historian should be missing The World at War in a collection, and no student should leave school without having seen at least some of its salient episodes. Rarely is film so essential. --Erik J. Macki
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