Product Details

• Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Arts Magic
• DVD Release Date: October 31, 2006
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000HXDWVY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,585 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

NEWSREEL HISTORY OF THIRD REICH:V4 - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A good overview of the second half of 1940, May 1, 2011

By 

F. Ross (N. Charleston, SC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Newsreel History of the Third Reich, Vol. 4: 1940, Pt. 2 (DVD)

To begin with, a caveat emptor for this and every other title in this series---if you dislike having to read subtitles while you listen to a German-language soundtrack, don't bother buying this. The English-language soundtrack consists of a British narrator reading the subtitles and trying to sound like he thinks an English-speaking Propaganda Ministry announcer would sound; it's really bad and gets old after a minute. Sir Laurence Olivier this guy is not! You're much better off reading the subtitles and listening to it auf Deutsch, even if you don't understand German. Furthermore, the Germans made good use of sound in their newsreel footage---if they didn't have weapons firing, machines humming or boots marching there's a lot of music filling the sound between the German narration. If you listen to the English soundtrack to this episode, all of the sound is mixed down and the English narration laid atop it and the effect is completely lost.
Also, Part One of every episode is a five-minute history of Hitler and the rise of the Nazis using a lot of still shots; there's nothing in it you don't already know if you're not a novice on twentieth-century Germany.
This episode has a pretty wide mix of subjects, beginning with the Wehrmacht's victory parade in Berlin after the fall of France. There's some coverage of the Battle of Britain, but it doesn't give one the feeling that that contest was as epochal as it really was, which is to be expected since it was the first defeat Hitler experienced. You see more non-combat footage in this episode than you might expect, but after all, the German Army was taking a breather and only the Navy and Luftwaffe were in action. The Reich Labor Service is shown hard at work in occupied Poland (the district of Wartheland is spelled in the subtitle as Wasteland!), you witness the embryo stage of the building of the Atlantic Wall, and there are parades and more parades. There's also footage from Italy's pathetic offensives in southern France and Egypt, the German Navy in action, and some of Europe's neutral states, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Spain (although the subtitles destroy the name of Franco's Foreign Minister Serrano Suner not once but twice). Of the first four episodes of this series, this is easily the best and most varied, and heartily recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Newsreel History of the Third Reich, March 14, 2009

By 

Mary L. Curtis "Mary L. Curtis" (Eden, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Newsreel History of the Third Reich, Vol. 4: 1940, Pt. 2 (DVD)

This DVD goes beyond what is normally shown on tv. It brings to the viewer a deeper understanding of what war was really like. A must for any WWII collector.