Customer Reviews

The Civil War - Secession to Gettysburg (Vol. 1)/ Gettysburg to Reconstruction (Vol. 2) [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This retelling of the American civil war could be excellent. It has very a good narration (not David McCullough) and contains very good material (not directed by Ken Burns). The story is told using contemporary photographs, film of re-enactments, and scenes from early movies. They are well spliced together and explain the civil war clearly and simply...

the previous negative reviews are pretty accurate. the listing i read on amazon had the WRONG INFO for the video. it is not 680 minutes. it is 90 min. also, some of the information is wrong. i didn't watch past the battle of shiloh, but up to that point several things were wrong, including names, pictures attributed to the wrong historical figure and even statistics. shiloh had 23,000 casulties (killed wounded or missing) but the film stated that there were 33,000 dead.

i can't say i would recommend this to anyone, even if you just want an overview of the war. ken burns doc. is still the best overview, though it is lenghty.

there are a lot of better cw video/dvds out there. i hope this helps.

While the narration on these tapes is very good and historically accurate, the video footage approaches the absurd. The action scenes are cut from silent movies about the American Civil War and some of the scenes are repeated many times. As is the case with the silent era, the physical movements of emotion are exaggerated and the film is often grainy.
Photos of the principal politicians, battle scenes and military leaders are included as references when an event is being described. Of course, there were no video cameras during the war, so the only possible accurate video is of aged veterans, of which some is included. Nevertheless, the video is a weakness of this historical record, especially given the number of repeats.

I received this video set and also another video from this dealer. I was very happy with the service and expiditiously the delivery. I have not watched either videos yet. (I am waiting for a rainey day!) We don't get much moisture here in Southern California. Thank you to everyone involved. 5 stars rating.