Product Details

• Format: Box set, Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 10
• Studio: Madacy Records
• VHS Release Date: February 19, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304843526
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,064 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well done; a must for any History Teacher, February 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Battles That Changed World [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I use these films in my Ancient & A.P. European History classes. The students like them very much (and so do I eventhough I've seen them several dozen times). The films only use realistic re-enactors and battle scenes. I highly recommend these films

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Can "Battles" Overcome Poor Production Quality?, November 15, 2000

By 

S. Bernstein (Upland, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Battles That Changed World [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Battles That Changed the World provides surprising academic depth for students of history. Detailed descriptions of battle strategies are well placed in their respective historical contexts, enabling the viewer to understand not only battle tactics but the prevailing political and strategic climates that prevailed at the time. For the casual student of history, the content of the videos will prove educational, although not enlightening.

It is a shame that such a valuable historical resource for historical hobbyists and students is handicapped by poor production quality. From the repetitive battle re-enactment scenes shot with a minimum of extras, to sloppy editing, to the questionable decision to produce in Extended Play VHS format, the production quality greatly detracts from the overall experience.

While you will certainly get a solid recounting of the historical importance of each of the battles, you may find it hard to bear with the quality of the production.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some Interesting Information, Poor Presentation/Reproduction, July 28, 2001

By 

Eclectic Reader (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battles That Changed World [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you know some history and want to know a little more, this tape set may have information that is new to you. I have a very moderate amature's knowledge of history, mostly from reading a fair amount (no college history course work, for example - I am an engineer and avoided that stuff in college). However, considering how much the producers of this tape could have done, the results are disappointing. Quality productions may not have more than a few bad actors usable for "reinactments", as is the case with these tapes, but what they can do that us civilians can't is get access to portions of museums not usually open to the public, interview heads of private collections, museums, and the more prominent folks in the field, and put together simple but reasonably historically accurate graphical presentations using maps and simple computer graphics showing how things flowed and progressed as time passed. None of this was done very well on these tapes. The tapes have about as little of this as one can get and still fall in the range of professional productions. In addition, the reproduction in SLP is inexcusable. The tracking needs constant adjustment. I accepted this 15 years ago when tapes were expensive, but tape is super cheap now. The poor quality of SLP is not worth the $.001/tape saved, given the extra annoyance it "provides" for consumers.

My summary would be as follows: if you really like history and haven't investigated the battles covered by the tapes in other ways or forums, they are OK even if annoying due to the poor reproduction and lower-end production effort that was spent. If you are not dedicated to the material, these tapes will be a turn-off due to their mediocre production coupled with the poor reproduction in VHS SLP.