Product Details

• Actors: Oscar De La Hoya
• Format: 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: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: December 16, 2008
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001IQDARK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,505 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An ugly war explained, September 27, 2009

By 

CGScammell (Cochise County, AZ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The Mexican-American War (DVD)

I am surprised no one has yet written a review of this DVD. Issues with Mexicans are important today as they were in 1846.

A war that started over the perceived border between Texas and Mexico turned into a long and drawn-out war that at the time cost more American lives that all its previous wars to date. The historians interviewed for this documentary were unbiased; we learn about both sides and see history from both points of view.

"President Polk lied!" said one Mexican historian.

What started as a border dispute turned into an invasion of Mexico. Internal fighting in Mexico City caused the Mexican government to withdraw its troops along its northern frontier to fight the growing civil war in the capital. This was the turning point in this war; not even the Mexicans were in accord of how to fight this war against the US.

Although some of the reenactments were cheesy (there were few photographs taken of this war to be used as visuals) maps, quotes from diaries and documents were used to explain this war that took away half of Mexico's landmass and fulfilled the American dream of Manifest Destiny.

For someone who has only picked up American history within the last two years, this documentary opened up many eyes for me. I learn about Los Patricios, Irish-American deserters from the US Army who fought for the Mexican side because the Mexicans were, like the Irish, Catholic and there was much discrimination against the Irish in the 18th through 20th centuries. This is real history, both brutal and unjust but unscripted.

Oscar de la Hoya narrated parts of this documentary. "When I won that Olympic medal I won it for both countries" perhaps explains the importance of US-Mexican relations even for today.

In 1846 President Polk had offered Mexico $30 million for the land that is now our Southwest and West. Mexico refused. Two years later Mexico relented and surrendered that same landmass for a mere $15 million.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars History with an agenda, January 3, 2011

By 

David Tianen (Menomonee Falls, WI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Mexican-American War (DVD)

The Mexican War tends to be a neglected episode in American history which is arguably strange since it so dramatically increased the size of the nation. Unfortunately, I felt that this treatment portrays the conflict simply as a naked land grab on the part of President James Polk. In fact, both sides were looking for a fight and both sides sent troops into disputed territory and the Mexicans fired first. Which certainly delighted Polk. The fact that in 1846 Mexico had the larger army and a strong desire to recapture it's lost Texas province seems to be overlooked. This was not a super power fighting a Third World nation in 1846. Many European military experts expected Mexico to win. Even a war criminal like Santa Anna gets something of a free pass and his crimes at the Alamo and Goliad ten years earlier are not even mentioned. I don't mean to minimize the expansionist thrust of the Polk Administration, but the war was considerably more complicated politically and morally than this documentary would have you believe.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Mexican - American War Simplified, June 18, 2010

By 

James J. Varela (Sarasota, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mexican-American War (DVD)

This is a good summary of the war and does a fair job explaining the military tactics of the period and the rationale behind then President Polk's ideology of Manifest Destiny. This documentary is not for scholars but still a nice production.