Customer Reviews

Dogfights: The Complete Series

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dogfights is an amazing and unique documentary TV series originally broadcast on the History Channel.

This DVD collection of Dogfights series 1 & 2 consists of twenty eight episodes, plus some extras, on a total of nine DVDs.

Each episode contains superb and realistic computer generated graphics, designed to place you right there in the dogfight.

Incredible feats of human bravery are expertly demonstrated and narrated, as man and machine go head to head in the theatres of aerial combat throughout the 20th century.

Tactical descriptions and life and death situations are told by the fighter jocks themselves, mostly with an American slant.

Flight dynamics and aerial maneuvers are dissected and demonstrated with dynamically exciting and realistic CGI graphics animation, and also including some original footage.

Fantastic camera angles, fast paced action and the fascinating narration makes this documentary the most exciting and interesting documentary series on fighter aircraft I have ever seen.

Phantoms, Hellcats, Sabres, Tomahawks, Wildcats, Thunderbolts, Mustangs, Fokker Triplane's, F-15's, Vietnam, WWI, WWII, Middle East, Europe, Korea and the Pacific are just some of the aircraft and operations covered.

If you like fighter aircraft, you'll love this.

I found these Dvds to be beyond all expectations. The graphics are outstanding and the content is of extreme high quality. There is so much information crammed into these Dvds. Truly educational.

This is an excellant documentary style representation of airplane fights during several wars from WWI to the Gulf War. It disects the confrontations between each aircraft, showing several defensive tactics while using computer generated images as well as actual combat footage. It is well worth the purchase.

The CGI were fantastic. Most of all, it is not 2nd, 3rd or 4th hand history. It is told, for the most part by the people that were really there. Being a history buff I couldn't have asked for any better. As usual the items from Amazon arrived on time and in good condition.

The animation was well done and the pilot interviews were interesting. I was a bit disappointed that these air battles are told from the allied (actually, just the American) side only. It would have been interesting to hear some other viewpoints. Still, this series is well worth watching if you're a history buff, if you like aviation or if you just admire and respect the courage of these pilots, many of whom were only 20 or so years old.

Seasons One and Two of "Dogfights" compliment each other so well that I highly recommend buying both disc sets at one time.

The CGI is fabulous. The resulting visuals are arresting, much more lifelike than actual combat footage, which tends to be grainy or washed out. The CGI is so accurate that even the reflections on the fuselage of each aircraft follow the sun as the pilots maintain an orbit above or around a target, or pursue their enemy. The sequences of aerial combat are very fluid and very close to the sort of dogfight scenarios that one might visualize without having had the actual experience of air combat.

The two sets of nine discs have some really beautiful highlights: "Long Odds", a segment that features "Old 666", a B-17 outfitted with thirteen .50 calibre machine guns and heavier armament. That Flying Fortress was tasked with the reconnaissance of Japanese troop movements over various land locations. Old 666 was involved in a 45-minute dogfight, facing an overwhelming Japanese presence. Its pilot, Jay Zeamer won the Medal of Honor for his heroism. Ultimately, the crew of Old 666 became the most Highly decorated B-17 crew of WWII. A great story.

"The Luftwaffe's Deadliest Mission" depicts the unique mission of the SonderKommando Elbe, and elite group of German pilots mustered together in a last ditch effort to stop the allies from entering Deutchland: Using stripped down ME109's, the mission of each pilot was to seek out and ram Allied B-17 and B-24's in Kamikaze fashion. The CGI is great, but the interviews with two of the surviving pilots is especially interesting.

Other notable episodes about World War II also feature CGI depicting aerial engagements involving naval vessels: "The Hunt for the Bismark" and "Death of the Japanese Navy". The latter episode is a CGI adaptation of the actions surrounding Taffy III, and how that task force, which was cut off from the rest of the US Pacific fleet for a few days, managed to inflict serious damage on Japanese naval forces in the straights of the Phillipine islands.

Also noteworthy is "The Tuskegee Airmen" which goes into specific detail about the heroic exploits of the Brave African-Americans who flew P-51 Mustangs in covering missions for the B-24's and B-17's that flew combat missions in the skies over Romania and southern Europe.

Other Highlights: "Death of the Luftwaffe" chronicles Operation Bodenplatte, which took place on New Year's day, 1945 against a forawrd American airbase in Europe; And "Secret Weapons" which are accurate depictions of the ME-262, the Kamikaze, and remotely controlled airplanes.

I counted about three episodes about the air war in Korea, which include "Supersonic" and "Jet vs. Jet". Again, great CGI. Ace Pilots Frederick "Boots" Blesse, Robbie Risner and Ralph Parr give great commentary. The leap in jet technology and the effect it had on aerial combat and the resulting high speed problems each pilot faced are explained in surprising detail.

Of particular interest is the inclusion of about a half-dozen episodes that depict the F4 Phantom and the various missions assigned to their Pilots and Radar Intercept Officers.
I'm a huge fan of the F4 Phantom and the pilots that flew them, so these episodes are truly amazing to me. It's difficult for me to imagine to be at the top front of all that raw power.

"Hell Over Hanoi" with commentary by Fred Olmsted and Dan Cherry F4 is great. "Air Ambush" with commentary by legendary Air Force Ace Robin Olds is also something to see. That episode has a brief flashback - sort of a story within a story - to his days as a P-38 combat pilot in the skies over western Europe during World War II.

"One Inch from Out of Control," features commentary by Willie "Irish" Driscoll and Randy "Duke" Cunningham and is simply put, amazing. At the controls of the USS Constallation's VF-96 "Showtime 100," the Pilot and RIO score three MIG kills and escape a Surface to Air Missile hit which tears their Phantom apart and with only nanoseconds to spare, eject into the waters of the south China Sea.

Other noteworthy Phantom sequences: "The Bloodiest Day" which depicts the May 10, 1972 bombing mission of the Hai Dong Railyards, and "Gun Kills of Vietnam," which shows how effective the addition of a gun pod on the F4 was.

"Dogfights of Desert Storm" is also covered extensively in one episode, and on another disc, an episode covering the exploits of the Israeli Air Defense Force is also included.

There isn't much about World War I, but the series' introductory episode feautres a segment devoted to Eddie Rickenbacker and the techniques of aerial combat that he and other notables such as Manfred Von Richtoffen helped to develop and are still studied by combat pilots today.

To its credit, the History Channel also put together a CGI series that dealt more with ground combat in World War II, but the CGI didn't work all that well. Even though the historical information was accurately depicted, the CGI wasn't nearly what it should have been mostly by virtue of the complicated nature of recreating computer-generated human beings. In other words, the soldiers didn't look real.

"Dogfights" Seasons One and Two are two dvd sets that I highly recommend. Devotees of air combat will find themselves watching many of these episodes several times to get all of the nuance of the air engagements depicted on these dvds.

I am a professional aviation artist known for my realistic and meticulously-researched depictions of military aviation history. With that out of the way, and in regards to some reviews here hinting, in effect, that this series is more video game rather than a Ph.D.-level take on the subject (I don't think it ever pretends to be so), I absolutely love this series!

Each episode is a very well put together "look" at specific aerial combat actions, with a fine balance of narrative, stock historical footage, expert commentary (including distinguished historians, current operators of the airplane(s) in question, and of course the actual pilots featured in each story), and finally the CGI itself depicting the action. The CGI graphics are amazing, on a level of realism that very nicely enhances rather than detracts from each episode, as it well could have ... though as a parent and thus a regular viewer of so-called children's DVDs I would pay big money to see what the magicians at Pixar could do with this subject (ever seen CARS? Stunning art in every sense of the word) ... but I digress.

Per my occupation, if I'm feeling a little "artist's block" every once in a while I'll pop in one of these DVDs and watch an episode - or two! Then I'm suddenly motivated to get at the current project, and I'm always getting aerial combat 'ideas' for future work viewing this series. Kudos to THC for having two seasons ... more, more!!

Wade Meyers

Season 1 & 2 of Dogfights have been fansinating to watch. I have used both editions as gifts to young aviators that are learning the history of military aircraft. Not only are the actual dogfights illustrated with fantastic computer graphics, but individuals that lived and flew those missions are often giving additional commentary. Great buy for any aviator interested historic events involving aircraft.

Unfortunately, as with many other newer shows, this one is "dumbed down" for the masses. At one time, the Discovery family of channels was intended for "thinking people". Now it is little more than pop culture programming aimed at the mindless sheep with attention spans of 15 seconds or less, and no appreciation for detail or accuracy. There are many errors in this series, such as inaccurate specifications on some of the aircraft, and inaccurately rendered aircraft in the animations. The video clips often are not even of the aircraft involved, but the same old worn out stock footage we see everywhere else. Many of the animated flight regimes are simplistic and cartoon-like; showing aircraft performing unrealistic maneuvers. The "camera" that shakes when aircraft fly by is MADDENING. Why does everything have to be aimed at the common denominator?

With all of that said, it is a good show, compared to what else is available out there. Not just good, but really good. So good in fact that I gave it 4 stars.

It just could have been so much more.

I bought this for my husband and even I enjoyed it. Very well done, lots of extras that we had never seen before. If I could change anything it would be that I would have loved to get it on Blu-ray.