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New Slimline 3 dvd digipack. Channel 4 s acclaimed history of WWI is a powerful and comprehensive account of the conflict. It places the war in a truly global military context, exploring many of the little-known campaigns and battles as well as the Western Front. Combining previously unseen film from newly accessible archives in Central and Eastern Europe with new film of the battlefields across the world as they are today.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
91 of 94 people found the following review helpful
This is probably the best documentary on the subject since the 1960's series 'The Great War'. It attempts to explain and highlight the tactics and strategy's employed in the conflict and is both revisionist and traditional in its interpretation of events. Its clever use of letters and diaries of the time helps to produce a sense of the time for the viewer. Although unseen footage of the period is now hard to come by this series does manage to include some previously unseen pictures.
The series will be useful to anyone interested in British and/or military history. A very good aid for the pupil at school learning about the Great War just as for the graduate.
The series will be useful to anyone interested in British and/or military history. A very good aid for the pupil at school learning about the Great War just as for the graduate.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
I have now seen these DVDs twice and they have been send twice also on Danish Televisions DR2 programme. I think that they are very good and worthwile buying.
They give a great introduction to the First World War and with only ten episodes you can't expect more. Another reader here compares it to BBCs Great War of the 1960s, and of course that series was more detailed because it was a seventeen and half hours epic!
The big advantage of the present series is that it has a modern touch showing the places as of today and very good maps, which are normally lacking in DVDs on the First and Second World Wars.
Strachans also brings home that the First World War was a true world war by describing and analysing the events outside of the Europe and the Western Front. I agree although with the other reviewers that he should have put a little more emphasis on the main events on the main theatres of war than he did.
But the only thing I really wonder about is when the two other volumes are coming in his three part book series on OUP. The account is very good although the maps are awful. They only show you the places, and not the fronts or the armies. That is hopefully gonna change in the upcoming volumes.
They give a great introduction to the First World War and with only ten episodes you can't expect more. Another reader here compares it to BBCs Great War of the 1960s, and of course that series was more detailed because it was a seventeen and half hours epic!
The big advantage of the present series is that it has a modern touch showing the places as of today and very good maps, which are normally lacking in DVDs on the First and Second World Wars.
Strachans also brings home that the First World War was a true world war by describing and analysing the events outside of the Europe and the Western Front. I agree although with the other reviewers that he should have put a little more emphasis on the main events on the main theatres of war than he did.
But the only thing I really wonder about is when the two other volumes are coming in his three part book series on OUP. The account is very good although the maps are awful. They only show you the places, and not the fronts or the armies. That is hopefully gonna change in the upcoming volumes.
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not definitive but does shed light on previously little known battlefields
4 Feb 2007
By DF McCleland
VINE™ VOICE
The 1960's BBC series, "The Great War" is more definitive than this latest production. Examples where there is lack of completeness are the Verdun and Somme campaigns which are compressed into one episode. The Eastern Front which was cataclysmic from a Russian perspective is also sparsely covered. This is undoubtedly an unbalanced production in terms of the importance of the action versus the time spent on the aspect covered. If one requires a definitive documentary on this war, rather purchase the BBC version but this production being more than 40 years old, although excellent, is rather dated in style.
In contrast in this DVD little known actions are covered in a disproportional amount of detail. No other video covers aspects such as the campaign in the ex-German colonies such as German East Africa [now Tanzania] & German South West Africa [now known as Namibia]. The German attempts to incite the Islamic world into anti British & Russian actions are also covered quite comprehensively.
Even though the aforementioned aspects are treated at the expense of more important parts of the war, it does add a new dimension to a war which otherwise comprised an unremitting series of artillery bombardments, machine guns scything down lines of soldiers "going over the top" & battles which are similar to one another & which in the facetious words of Rowan Atkinson a la Black Adder merely resulted in General Haig's drink's table moving one yard nearer to Berlin.
The style is a balance between three presentation styles. The backbone are videos many of them new to this reviewer. These are interwoven with extracts of diaries from eye witnesses. This provides a sense of immediacy.... Read more ›
In contrast in this DVD little known actions are covered in a disproportional amount of detail. No other video covers aspects such as the campaign in the ex-German colonies such as German East Africa [now Tanzania] & German South West Africa [now known as Namibia]. The German attempts to incite the Islamic world into anti British & Russian actions are also covered quite comprehensively.
Even though the aforementioned aspects are treated at the expense of more important parts of the war, it does add a new dimension to a war which otherwise comprised an unremitting series of artillery bombardments, machine guns scything down lines of soldiers "going over the top" & battles which are similar to one another & which in the facetious words of Rowan Atkinson a la Black Adder merely resulted in General Haig's drink's table moving one yard nearer to Berlin.
The style is a balance between three presentation styles. The backbone are videos many of them new to this reviewer. These are interwoven with extracts of diaries from eye witnesses. This provides a sense of immediacy.... Read more ›
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
By P. Ward
Great coverage of the causes of the war and the often overlooked actions in China, the Middle East, Italy and the Eastern Front. However quite disappointing that both Verdun and the Somme battles are compressed into just two thirds of one 50 minute episode and the 'Race for the Sea' and the first, second and third battles of Ypre are omitted altogether.
Overall a very good series but I would recommend that viewers supplement the content by reading Hew Strachan's books on which it is based.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
As another reviewer has stated, it is not definitive (mind you, any programme that tried that would either be superficial or too long for anyone to sponsor it). However, it does provide interesting details of the initiation of the war, war crimes, and other battlefields apart from the Western Front. It is far from monotonous and I thoroughly recommend it. It seems that it is not generally available any more. That is a real pity. Anyone interested in WWI should view it.
49 of 58 people found the following review helpful
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This is a very odd thing: a history of the Great War made self-consciously without reference to those who were there. Certainly, there were too few survivors to have formed the basis for a new account of the war. All the same, it is a pretty strange selling-point. The series is constructed from the work of Hew Strachan, which suggests another problem. Strachan is the author of a three-part series on the war for OUP, except that, so far, that's a three-part series with omly one part. The book on which this series is really based is his much more slender tome "The First World War". If the magnum opus contains no more insights than the one-volume history, it's hardly going to be worth the wait (writing about the First World War is a lot more time-consuming than fighting it, you see). If, on the other hand, Strachan has kept radical new ideas up his sleeve for the main work, this series is going to be left high and dry. As it is, the series covers some aspects of the war quite well, but is desperately patchy overall. To shoe-horn the whole thing into ten parts, big sacrifices have been made. Strachan, however, has (to mix metaphors) quite a few bees buzzing around in his bonnet and these seem to have been considered sacrosanct. The coverage of the effects of the war on Africa is good, but clearly came at the expense of analysis of other areas. Turkey's role in the conflict is covered quite well, but should Turkey really get more attention than Russia? The account of the Eastern Front is impressionistic to the point of incoherence. It's all very well wanting to shed light on neglected subjects, but what use is that, unless the light is shed evenly?... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
History
Gives you a far greater insite as to why this war started. High quality footage considering it is now 100yrs old. Keeps you interested from start to finnish
Published 3 months ago by Mr. P. Haddon-baker
3.0 out of 5 stars
3 stars for a fairly fluffy...but fairly nice piece of "cotton candy"...
The feeling I got while watching this "documentary" on World War 1..was that it was kind of "light weight" and had an underlining political agenda or "political correction" to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by horoscopy
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive and interesting story
This was an extremely watchable series, which explained the First World War, its causes and effects, better than I've ever heard it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Redbarnchris
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as BBC's "The Great War"
The BBC's 1964 series "The Great War" is a much better introduction to the war. The main claims to fame of this production are that it contains original color footage ("The Great... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Pascal Tiscali
4.0 out of 5 stars
New Perspectives on World War I
This series is a fine introduction to the First World War. It is important, however, to be aware that this series emphasizes certain aspects of the war but does not give a clear... Read more
Published 16 months ago by givbatam3
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