The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)
starring: Laurence Olivier, Anthony Eden, Averell Harriman, Albert Speer, Siegfried Westphal
List Price: $99.95
as of 09/02/2010 01:25 EDT
Amazon.com's Price: $44.49
You Save: $55.46 (55%)as of 09/02/2010 01:25 EDT
Product Description:
Examines the events and battles of World War II.
Amazon.com:
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 Mérit, 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:
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
Examines the events and battles of World War II.
Amazon.com:
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 Mérit, 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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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Definitive WW2 history with great interviews
Made in 74, this 24 hour British documentary benefits from many interviews with still young WW2 vets from various countries, including Germany. We see and hear their remembrances of such events as the bombing of London. Fairly amazing stuff from people who look to be in their 50s and 60s when filmed, probably some time in the late 60s or early 70s? I have not seen all the episodes, but you will get hooked very quickly once you see only one or two. The sweep, the tone, the clips, the interviews, the ... Read More
Rating: - The Narration is the Icing on the Cake
This chronicle of WWII provides not only classic battle footage, but also commentary by the people involved in the actions and decicions that shaped events...often the viewer comes to feel that things on the battlefield are not really under the control of major players, but to a great extent, the common soldier.
The bonus DVD on the Holocaust was very harrowing- and as a teacher of Holocaust studies, I'd thought myself inured.
And the narrator to this series: Sir Laurence Olivier
Rating: - One of the most complete documentaries ever
An excellent documentary on WW2.Filled with eyewitness accounts, extensive footage, brutal honesty; not the modern revisionist way of treating history.
Rating: - By far the best WWII Documentary Ever
I have a number of dvd and videos regarding WWII. One just bought prior to this set, "The Nazis". It was okay. This documentary, produced in 1974, is the best ever. It includes many interviews with people in the war. Now most are dead. I will not buy another WWII documentary because there is so little, if any, left out that at best a new one would be mostlly redundant. If you are a WWII buff, I highly recommend this set.
Rating: - Real history.... without all the propoganda.
I've only gotten through the first 3 DVD's of the set, but from what I've seen so far, this is an excellent documentary. It's ironic that the economic conditions that led to Hitler's rise to power mirror those here in the U.S. The fact that so many are willing to give up their civil rights to stave off perceived fears....but back to the DVD. Here in the USA we only know about several events of WWII, (Pearl Harbor, Normandy assault, Iwo Jima, and Hiroshima)but there were so many lives lost before we even entered ... Read More
- Definitive WW2 history with great interviewsMade in 74, this 24 hour British documentary benefits from many interviews with still young WW2 vets from various countries, including Germany. We see and hear their remembrances of such events as the bombing of London. Fairly amazing stuff from people who look to be in their 50s and 60s when filmed, probably some time in the late 60s or early 70s? I have not seen all the episodes, but you will get hooked very quickly once you see only one or two. The sweep, the tone, the clips, the interviews, the ... Read More
Rating:
- The Narration is the Icing on the CakeThis chronicle of WWII provides not only classic battle footage, but also commentary by the people involved in the actions and decicions that shaped events...often the viewer comes to feel that things on the battlefield are not really under the control of major players, but to a great extent, the common soldier.
The bonus DVD on the Holocaust was very harrowing- and as a teacher of Holocaust studies, I'd thought myself inured.
And the narrator to this series: Sir Laurence Olivier
Rating:
- One of the most complete documentaries everAn excellent documentary on WW2.Filled with eyewitness accounts, extensive footage, brutal honesty; not the modern revisionist way of treating history.
Rating:
- By far the best WWII Documentary EverI have a number of dvd and videos regarding WWII. One just bought prior to this set, "The Nazis". It was okay. This documentary, produced in 1974, is the best ever. It includes many interviews with people in the war. Now most are dead. I will not buy another WWII documentary because there is so little, if any, left out that at best a new one would be mostlly redundant. If you are a WWII buff, I highly recommend this set.
Rating:
- Real history.... without all the propoganda.I've only gotten through the first 3 DVD's of the set, but from what I've seen so far, this is an excellent documentary. It's ironic that the economic conditions that led to Hitler's rise to power mirror those here in the U.S. The fact that so many are willing to give up their civil rights to stave off perceived fears....but back to the DVD. Here in the USA we only know about several events of WWII, (Pearl Harbor, Normandy assault, Iwo Jima, and Hiroshima)but there were so many lives lost before we even entered ... Read More
