The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition) |  | Actors: Laurence Olivier, Anthony Eden, Averell Harriman, Albert Speer, Siegfried Westphal
Studio: A&E Home Video
List Price: $99.95
Buy New: $31.99
as of 11/24/2009 01:19 CST details
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Seller: mediablasters
Rating:  272 reviews
Sales Rank: 869
Format: Box set, Black & White, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 11
Running Time: 1357 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.5 x 3.2
MPN: AAED71374D
ISBN: 0767065751
UPC: 733961713749
EAN: 9780767065757
ASIN: B0002F6AH0
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Release Date: August 24, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This landmark incomparable rememberance of world war ii includes rare interviews with veterans & survivors amazing archive footage & chilling narration by sir laurence olivier. Studio: A&e Home Video Release Date: 08/24/2004 Run time: 1199 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com essential video
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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Showing reviews 1-5 of 272
 The World at War - DVD Documentary September 28, 2009
Musiker (Pennsylvania)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The definitive World War II documentary, emotionally gripping and edifying on virtually every level: excellent production values, with superb photographs, top-flight film footage and accurate descriptions of the sweeping political movements, gargantuan military engagements and profound human tragedies that defined the conflict - made even more compelling by means of a superb narrative from the legendary Laurence Olivier.
WITHOUT A DOUBT THE BEST WORLD WAR II DOCUMENTARY September 20, 2009
B Ardell Young (Camden, SC United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I saw this series during the 1970s and recorded via VHS tapes because it had no peer about the detailed coverage of World War II. It overcomes being in black and white because of the in-depth coverage of the war, narration by Laurence Olivier, and the production of the film.
I teach American history and purchased the DVD to use in a prolonged study of World War II. Several segments have been previewed by selected students and has received high ratings from the "color" generation.
"World At War" will appeal to novice or expert about World War II and probably the well-versed person might take away from the series than the novice.
The best WWII documentary -- and possibly the best documentary period -- ever. September 13, 2009
Darren B. O'Connor (Norfolk, Virginia United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
No documentary like this can ever be created again. The Second World War was the towering event of twentieth century, and indeed, perhaps of all human history. As a conflict which claimed over 60 million lives, saw the lowest depths of the human capacity for evil plumbed, and which left no part of the globe untouched, there is no other event in world history quite like it. And since it ushered in the age of nuclear weapons, there can never be another war like it again, for any clash of nations that ever occurred on such a scale hereafter would almost certainly see those weapons deployed, to the ruin of all. And beyond all this, perhaps there never was any other conflict where the enemy so clearly had to be fought, for the sake of the greater good, no other conflict where evil stood out so strongly. So World War Two will always occupy a unique place in our consciousness, and deservedly so.
Such a singularly important event in human history demands, as does nothing else, a singularly great documentary to commemorate it, and in "The World at War" this conflict has such an account. The artistic and historical merit of this documentary are simply unsurpassed. The only other video record of a great war that can compare to this one is Ken Burns' "The Civil War," and that is a very different sort of animal. I said that no documentary like this can ever be created again, and Burns' Civil War documentary is one proof of why. Since all those directly involved have passed from the scene, Burns' film was created, as any future WWII documentary must soon be, solely with the help of historians. As each day passes, more and more veterans of the Second World War pass on from this life. World War One is now, like the American Civil War, almost beyond the reach of living memory. Soon World War Two will be there as well. But "The World at War" was made during the 1970s, when many of the men who fought in that war, even some of the senior commanders, were alive and well, and able to offer their recollections of the conflict. Interviews with soldiers and sailors who fought in that war, of officers who led men in that war, or of civil servants and politicians who directed the war effort at home, and people who lived through that time, and saw life on the homefront, abound in this documentary, and offer a view of the event that is now swiftly passing beyond reach. Soon this window will be closed forever, so we are extremely fortunate that the makers of this series recorded these interviews. They personalize the war in a way that no history book, however well written, ever can. To see the faces and hear the voices of the people involved as they relate their experiences, conveys something that can be captured in no other way. When this is combined with the historical commentary, the archival footage, and the brilliant writing of the show, as narrated by the incomparable Laurence Olivier, it makes for a documentary film like no other.
Ever since this film debuted, it has aired continuously. Right now, even as this is written, there is some station or network somewhere that is airing it. Few programs indeed attain such immortality. All one need do is watch it, and the reason for its enduring popularity will be evident. If you own no other documentary account of The Second World War, buy this one. I cannot praise it highly enough. But I warn you, watching it will whet your appetite for more, and while you may seek out many more documentaries about World War Two, you'll never find another as good. So you may turn to books and other sources to fill the gaps in your knowledge. Then you may find, rather to your surprise, that this series has led you to learn a great deal more about the subject. And if there is any higher compliment to be paid to a documentary, I can't think of what it might be.
Awesome! September 5, 2009
D. Riley (El Dorado, AR USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have been very impressed watching this multi-part series. I saw it when it originally came out in 1974, but had forgotten a lot of it. Seeing it again, I have been very appreciative of the richess of the narration and the great video. Much better than what one can see on the History Channel.
 The Best but Not Definitive August 26, 2009
M. Olic (Los Angeles, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This series is the best one on WWII and it is doubtful that someone will make one better anytime soon. The one thing that will keep this series status as landmark is participation of real people from WWII like Holocaust survivors, Nazi figures like Speer, Denitz, Himmler's adjutant Karl Wolff or allied figures like Lord Mountbatten. Most of them are dead so any new series would have to go without them. Documentary material is good and unless someone unearthed something new in the past 35 years then there is nothing to add in this department. Unlike other WWII series covering one country only or just war battles, this one is offering extensive coverage of life during war in Germany, Japan, Great Britain, America, Russia and Netherlands. Thanks to this we know why Great Britain had better war economy than Germany and how America achieved unprecedented industrial production that ultimately crushed Germany and Japan. Without Americans, Churchill would permanently move to Washington DC while Stalin would wage guerrilla warfare against Germany on Kamchatka peninsula.
Unfortunately, this series can't be called definitive as many imply because there are serious shortcomings like trying to cover too many topics in just 26 episodes. Many people point out that various countries, battles or even outcome and cause of WWII were not covered in depth or not at all. It is hard to understand why Jeremy Isaacs never attempted to film more episodes after initial success of series. He admitted himself during interview that he missed a lot of events that should have been covered. Major problem with this series is that it was filmed at the height of Cold War in early '70s. There are many references to Vietnam and in general USSR and Stalin were presented in positive way. Looking from today's perspective this is quite laughable. Not once they mentioned 13 billion dollars lease Roosevelt gave to Stalin. Just imagine having 13 billion dollars in 1941 and what can you do with that money. I found on BBC web site that Russians obtained 450,000 trucks from Americans during WWII! One of German survivors from Berlin remembers Russian soldiers being full of chocolates. If she knew English she would probably read Hershey's on chocolate bar label. Where would Russians got chocolates? In Siberia maybe? It was not mentioned that beside T34 tanks Russians used Sherman tanks. After WWII was over, Stalin sent Sherman tanks to capture Teheran and Iran. Just imagine that irony! It is true that Russians fought heroically but was it because of patriotism or because of fear of Stalin and KGB. Series never mentioned KGB checkpoints around Stalingrad that prevented civilians and soldiers fleeing from ruined city. Anyone trying to flee was machine gunned to death by KGB. Russians worked and fought like slaves under Stalin's tyranny. Series never mentioned Stalin's order to imprison in gulags and then execute all those who surrendered to Germans or collaborated with them. Russians were mercilessly killed by Hitler and Stalin with no way out.
What we learn after 26 episodes is that appeasement to fanatics and lunatics lead to war. If France and Britain were pro-war in 1933 then Hitler would ended his career long before 1945. Why they let him rearm German army, take occupied Rhineland by French without a single shot fired and then sacrificed Austria and Czechoslovakia is still hard to understand. Even after their declaration of war to Germany in September of 1939 they stood still waiting for German army to attack them. We all know what happened later. One French general said in 1919 that WWI didn't end then but only provided 20-year armistice. Germans never felt defeated and that's why they started WWII to rectify their mistakes and finish their game from first war. Similar thing happened with the end of Cold War with collapse of Berlin wall 20 years ago. NATO tanks never arrived in Moscow and there was no NATO flag on top of Kremlin. Russians including Gorbachev still think, as Germans did, that they didn't lose Cold War. New fearless leader of Russia Putin is concerned about Russian minority in former Soviet states. He pledged their protection openly, being short of call for reunification. America and NATO these days try to appease Putin just to avoid any confrontation. Belarus will become Austria, Ukraine Poland and Georgia Czechoslovakia. Are we going to make the same mistake from 70 years ago?
Showing reviews 1-5 of 272
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