Product Details

• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Acorn Media
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 45 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6301522702
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #689,239 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Video Covering The Beginning of WWII Era, January 21, 2002

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: V for Victory: Pearl Harbor to Midway [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is the intial volume of a multi-volume set of videos depicting the course of the Second World War. This is an older effort, narrated by two former heavy-weight jornalists in the persons of Eric Sevareid and Edwin Newman, and utilizing the original black and white newsreel shown in theaters. This first volume explores the way in which the United States was ineluctably sucked into the conflict by virtue of the cowardly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This volume opens with, and then concentrates on, the way in which the Japanese armed forces advanced across the South Pacific, and spends some time detailing the fall of the Philippines.

This episode concludes by exploring the details of the daring American gamble at the naval engagement at Midway, which was the pivotal moment marking the apex and sudden end of end of Japan's expanionsit surge, as well as the beginnings of the fateful American moves to reestablish itself and become the dominating force in the region, which is the subject of Volume II). I was pleased by the realistic nature of the the newsreel footage, which gives one a vintage view of the events as they unraveled, and I believe this authenticity is the chief drawing point that this series has to offer, and is indeed the chief strength it brings to the understanding of the broad sweep of WWII it covers. This 45-minute documentary provides the viewer with an opportunity to use such an approach to view this mechanism much as the people back home saw them over half a century ago!