Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9275 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-04-05
• Rating: Exempt
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 500 minutes

Customer Reviews

The First World War
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.

Not definitive but does shed light on previously little known battlefields
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. It would have been preferable to use the testimony of the actual eye witnesses but given the effluxion of time this was probably not possible. The third component of the style is the use of contemporary & current views of the same scene. This certainly provides an additional dimension to this production. The blend of these three styles does provide renewed interest in the subject.

Overall this is an excellent production & deserves to be purchased but bear in mind that a comprehensive account is not possible within a 10 hour production. For those who have all the currently available videos on this war, this DVD covers certain neglected aspects & for those who are neophytes to the subject it will give one a feel for the combatants, style of warfare & modus operandi.

Very Good But Not Definitive
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.