Product Details

• Format: Box set, Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 10
• Studio: Mpi Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 1, 2000
• Run Time: 750 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003L9BX
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,056 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great film survey of an entire century, February 6, 2003

By 

Robert Schwartz (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History (DVD)

I found this a fascinating overview of a topic that is too big for 12 hours of film -- 10 decades of mostly U.S. and some world history. There is a good balance of topics between wars-and-dates, popular culture and personalities, and the changes in conditions of regular people -- workers, soldiers, immigrants, and women.

An ongoing theme is the evolution of things we now take for granted, such as access to information, equal rights, a decent standard of living, and core American values and civil rights. Most events are dealt with only briefly, an unfortunate necessity given the medium. But the topics, images, and film clips are always interesting.

I read the reviews here before I saw the DVD and was watching for a left-not-just-liberal slant, but I saw very little for most "hot button" topics mentioned. There is little time even spent on Israel and the Palestinians, for example. And the internment of Japanese-Americans in WW II got only a brief mention, much shorter than the time devoted to "Casablanca."

Yes, the film was sympathetic to the rights of minorities, but it didn't focus much time on Civil Rights except during the 60's. Yes, early Socialists were portrayed as idealistic in response to capitalist excesses, but Stalin and Mao were portrayed as evil. Nixon's achievements at home and abroad were praised as brave and underappreciated, while his personality was portrayed as contributing to his downfall. The survey of Clinton's presidency focused mostly on scandals.

Perhaps recent events are still too fresh for either the film's makers or its viewers to see in a fully "historical" context. I found the coverage of the recent decades adequate, but I was even more interested in the presentation of the early decades and the portrayal of various cause-and-effect trends across the decades.

I recommend this 4-sided DVD set, and think it is worth your time. It comes with a table of contents that lists the 100+ chapters, and a very detailed 35-page index. I wish it or its Web site ...included more depth about the myriad of topics that are touched upon, or at least references for further reading, but I guess that's what the library is for.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good review of the century, November 21, 2005

By 

C. Williams "livnforchrist" (Chatham, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History (DVD)

I find this set of DVD's as a good (not great) review of the 20th century. The 80's and 90's do have a liberal bias, but the rest of the decade is very well balanced. My only dislike is calling the 1920's presidents "the best of the second-raters". Any true scholar of the 20's would see the decided lack of understanding with that era. As a student and teacher of history (MS in Social Science and MA in Education) I tend to look for extreme bias as the hallmark of a lack of scholarship - this series is one that I use in class to INTRODUCE the era. For this purpose alone it is well worth the money.

I heartily recommend it for use in the classroom and as a way to familiarize oneself with the era.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of 20th century history, May 28, 2009

By 

Stuff (California, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History (DVD)

My middle-school-aged son is studying American History, so during a recent sick episode, I brought home these tapes. He was completely engaged and watched all the episodes in a 2-day period. I consider myself a political moderate, and had read some of the reviews accusing the producers of serious left-wing bias, so I was pleasantly surprised by the balance and moderation in the reporting. I did not feel any need to jump in and present alternative viewpoints -- I was very impressed. I thought it was quite fair, given that it covered such an enormous length of time.