Product Details

• Format: Box set, Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Madacy Records
• DVD Release Date: September 2, 2003
• Run Time: 660 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000AOV3O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,885 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

For the very first time, the complete history of World War II is now available in this exciting and comprehensive 5-DVD documentary collection that traces, in extraordinary detail, the monumental story of the greatest conflict of our times. The British Movietone Company presents this comprehensive and thrilling look at the 20th Century's most decisive conflict. Featuring a strong narrative and complete with original music scored dramatically for this program, this documentary makes for a strong and compelling narrative. Setting this program apart from others is the focus on some rarely covered parts of WWII such as Operation Barbarossa, the "phony war" period following the Polish invasion, the Flying Fortresses and the Manhattan Project.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent documentary hampered by factual and technical details, September 5, 2004

By 

Maverick77 (Nyack, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete History of WWII (DVD)

Being a WW2 buff I purchased this DVD collection recently.

The video portion of this documentary is very good... pretty much all of the footage is authentic historic footage... even though sometimes the footage repeats itself couple of times...
But generaly the video portion is very strong with editing and the added news reels are extra bonus.

Sound is a different story. The narrator's voice is actually pretty good with all the english accent and such... but whoever was mixing the narration and the music should be fired immediately. The music is just too damn loud in some parts, pretty much drowning the narrators voice with very loud score. The fact that the music repeats itself constantly is noticeable when you are watching couple of the episodes back to back. I've also noticed that at the end of Episode XI - Overlord the sound is cut off completly for roughly a full minute before the episode ends...

Another thing is the historical accuracy. The collection is actually pretty good but there are some VERY BAD portions... The one that really got me was the narrator's line in Episode VII - The Day of Infamy stating that the japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on the 11th of December 1941 - and couple of lines later stating the correct date of 7th of December 1941... OOPS!!!... now that is a big mistake that should not be tolerated on this so called "historical documentary"

Another very bad thing is the sheer number of typos.. in the documentary itself, in the DVD navigational menus and the DVD printed package... misspellings like Operation Bar Barossa (correctly Barbarossa), Battle of Kirsk (instead of Kursk), Operation Overload (instead of Overlord), Divine Win (instead of Divine Wind), Air Suppremacy (instead of Supremacy) should not be tolerated!!!... This makes me wonder what is the "quality control" at the publishers office...

If these important mistakes were corrected I would have given this collection 4,5 to 5 stars... but as it is stands now all of these very bad mistakes are dragging this DVD collection to the ground...
I was able to purchase it for $19.00 so if you get the chance to get this 5 DVD collection for the same amount or less it is worth it just for the video by itself...

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic content. Lousy audio, November 29, 2004

By 

S. Manos (Western, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete History of WWII (DVD)

Overall, this is a fantastic DVD, with tons and tons of details. However, the audio in some spots is absolutely horrid. The music is overpowering and you can barely hear the narrator. Too bad. Otherwise, this is and excellent DVD set.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Content but some sound issues, February 20, 2005

By 

Frǿjen (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete History of WWII (DVD)

I really enjoyed this series. It is an EXCELLENT deal. Dollar for dollar this is my best investment in my DVD library. There are eleven hours of footage. It includes old newsreels as a bonus.

It's a lot like a talking history book. It was written from a British perspective, which is enlightening for Americans like myself. It was very informative and links all the way back to the treaties after WWI and pushes forward past the end of WWII. It was very descriptive about the details of every year of the war and flowed well.

On the down side: Disc 2 has some parts where the background music is louder than the narrator. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available, so it's next to impossible to understand those sections. I tried playing on several systems and it still sounded bad, so its probably not my audio configuration. However, the problem is limited to only certain sections of that one disc. The majority of the series does not have that problem.