Customer Reviews

WWI War: The War to End All Wars

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have several DVD series on World War One. The Complete Story of World War I, narrated by Robert Ryan is an older series and dated in some ways, but is pretty good. The more recent "The First World War," based on historian Hew Strachan's new work on the war, is also very good and covers some different material. This series, "WWI: The War to End All Wars" differs from the other two in some ways. That is, you can own all three and learn something different from each one. Having said that, this series could have been a lot better in many ways. The narration is so-so in that the narrator mispronounces a number of names and places. The series editor should have caught those mistakes. The music is inappropriate; sometimes it reminds me of Ken Burns' "The War" which inexplicably used very slow jazz and other inappropriate music when describing a battle or related events. This series does the same, and it can be distracting. The theme song of this series is a fast, happy, Dixieland tune - very inappropriate for the material covered. Another weakness in the documentary that could have been a signficant strength are the interviews with several WWI veterans and some recordings of actual high-level officials (or nearly contemporaneous readings from their speeches and writings). For some odd reason, these excellent interviewees were not identified in the documentary. Sometimes you could figure out who they were from the script, but you had to listen carefully. It would have been good for the series editor to put the names of the interviewee at the bottom of the screen. If they didn't know who was speaking, they probably could have figured it out from the script or from historians familar with these figures (one appeared in World At War also and was a staff officer in the First World War, and wrote up diaries and other narrative accounts of WWII, Sir Edward Spears). Why names were omitted from the DVD is hard to understand. Other aspects of the historical narrative that are better understood today should have been corrected, such as the myth, popularized by Barbara Tuchman, that the generals and their timetables started WWI. The documentary mentioned this, and given that it is a very new production, I would have expected this to be corrected (the origins of the war are more properly rendered in the Hew Strachan DVD, though also covered rather briefly there). Overall, this is a pretty good DVD production with a lot to recommend it. It is ashame that the editor was not much more careful with the narration and other aspects of the production. We are still waiting for the definitive 'World At War'/'Civil War' documentary for WWI - an enormously important event in modern history.

The salvation of a dismal education system may be the Internet, the DVD and the interactive CD-ROM. Thos set of DVDs on the first World War is a case in point. As a teacher of history I know that if one is to inform a student, a certain amount of entertainment must go with the facts. This set meets both criteria.

This may not be the ultimate, in-depth set of DVDs on the subject, but it is a superb start. It should be viewed by students and then discussed. The disks put this war in perspective with other events in Europe at the time of the war and in the decades leading up to it. After all, the war did not come out of the blue one day in Sarajevo.

But this is also for the adult student with even a modest interest in history.

I picked up my copy from a jobber rack at a local supermarket. Given the price I wasn't expecting much but thought may would be worth a gamble compared to the Hollywood dreck in the neighboring bin.

The well considered script, along with the substantial period film footage and inclusion of interviews - culled from an older program - kept my interest and left me ready each following program.

The narration, is far from memorable, though seemingly competent in execution, save the pronunciation problems as pointed out in another review.

I do concur with Mr. Graham in his review on the use of music in the soundtrack which will alter randomly between asynchronous an annoying. Even the music selection for the end credits seems flippant given the subject matter.

For general consumption though these problems can likely be overlooked. This was a good effort by the producers.

The script is good. You could learn something if you manage to really follow the droning.

But, if you're a visual learner...well...you'll probably struggle. The amount and variety of footage is pretty good but they repeat much of it OVER AND OVER in all sorts of different, unrelated contexts..even simply mirror imaged to disguise that they just used it! All quotes of any army use British voices...no matter what the nationality.
The delivery of the script is very wooden; uninteresting. It's poorly organized.

Basically, it's painful to watch.

Visually, it becomes numbing as it's mostly just a never-ending splice of video footage played over the narration. Now and then, the footage seems to have SOMETHING to do with the narration, but often not.

Very little and poor use of maps (mostly very old animations on the maps). This makes explanations of battle maneuvers, strategies and tactics quite difficult to follow. For a recent offering (2008), I was surprised at how much of a re-hash it was. No original graphic work at all that I could see.

There was a galling lack of attention to detail. Even the graphics in the title sequence say "The War to End Wars" instead of "The War to End All Wars".

Looks like a real "budget" job.

I have two major criticisms of this documentary. First, the mispronunciation of the names and organizations is both irritating and hilarious. I had never heard the "Admiralty" pronounced as it is in this presentation. I would also add that the mispronunciation of both German and French names is a refreshingly evenhanded abuse of both languages! Second, the presentation of the war is uneven. The first disc starts with a very ambitious and detailed account of the war. The authors then seem to realize that in order to cover the total war in similar detail would take about 10 discs. Discs 2 and 3 then proceed to skimp on detail in order to cover the entire war. Finally while this is not a major criticism, the repeated use of the same video footage is boring.

This is essentially a repackaging of the BBC series "The Great War" from the sixties. Same footage, same interviews, same prissy dramatization of David Lloyd George. The difference is that this is a much less chomphrehensive look at the war, and a much less professional production. The title cards are plagued by spelling errors, the music is a mishmash of classical tunes and the narration is inferior.

Find "The Great War" instead of getting this. It's 27 hours of the best war documentary you'll ever see.

This review refers to the 2008 Mill Creek Entertainment 3-DVD set.

This set is nothing more than an inferior re-edited, re-dubbed and re-packaged version of the 2005 Madacy Entertainment.

The Madacy Entertainment version was titled Trenches: Battleground WWI and was released in a 5-disc set in a metal tin, complete with fold-out disc holder and a 25-page illustrated booklet and featured a narrator with a cultured voice not unlike Christopher Plummer.

A previous reviewer states that this is a re-edited version of yet another DVD series entitled THE GREAT WAR. I am not familiar with that one and cannot speak to whether it is the same as the Madacy version, but it is worth noting for the benefit of potential buyers.

THIS Mill Creek release trims off the opening and closing credits, chapter titles and narration, then inserts their own with an overmodulated narration that sounds like they stuck someone in a sound booth with a script in front of an open mike.

The script is juvenile and the narration is bland at best, but it states the facts and gives one at least a junior high understanding of the subject. The film footage used is still the same and of very good quality, but at the same time some of the opening and closing footage has been lost because of the editing, so you are losing some of the program, but nothing directly related to the educational portions.

I would recommend passing this ripoff in favor of the genuine artical.

On the plus side, this 3 DVD set has film footage and still photos that I have never seen before which adds much new visual information. This is the strongpoint of this DVD.

On the negative side, the narration is sophomoric: dull, monotone and lifeless; rather like an overlong lecture from your worst history teacher. Added to this is his atrocious mispronunciation of foreign words which is highly irritating. You have to hear it to believe it but typical examples are General Petain pronounced "pitane" and the city of Liege pronounced "leej". His butchering of German names is comical. Clearly he is reading from a script and pronounces foreign words phonetically. Not very professional.

Added to the irritation is the use of classical music in the background of many of the scenes; not only do the musical selections not fit the film or the narrative, they are distracting.

The story is told in more or less chronological order but there is a disconnect to the chronology which negatively affects the flow of the documentary. Keeping to one theme rather that cutting it up into smaller parts would have been better.

The film footage makes this a 3 star DVD; otherwise, it would not rate more than 1 star.

I bought this video expecting to find out more about the American Expeditionary Force. Imagine my surprise when the dvd ended before the Americans even arrived in France. VERY POOR "DOCUMENTARY". No maps showing the changing fronts, no explanation any of the weapons used (by either side); no descriptions of Chateau Thierry, First or Second Marne, Meuse-Argonne.

In short, though I'm only an amateur historian, this suggests strongly to me that it was slapped together for no purpose other than to earn someone in need some badly needed money. I'm just sorry to have contributed to that person.

The cost made it a bargain and I thought the video was not terrible but the narration was poor and the information was almost at water fall level....too much too quick. The students had a hard time following the causes. For an adult or history buff it comes across better.