Customer Reviews

Warships: Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay

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i really enjoyed watching this dvd but one thing they absolutely do not make clear in the page here is that these are historic films from the 1940's era. if you are expecting modern films with old geezers talking about battles they lived thru, and computer graphics, you are out of luck! this is just neat old combat films made by the u.s. navy that show battles in 1944 and 45 that took place in the Pacific. some of this is really really incredible like the USS Franklin coming into nyc after nearly getting blowed up and losing half the crew. anyway if you are into seeing things like people saw them half a century ago, this is for you.

"The Saga of the Franklin", which is included on this DVD of historic Navy films, is worth the price of admission. Although I had read a great deal about the attack on the Franklin and seen photographs of the aftermath, I never realized that the Navy had cameramen aboard shooting motion picture film of the whole incident! In fact, this amazing film shows Franklin before it was even commissioned. Many of the men who appear in the opening sequence, as the ship steams into the combat zone, doubtless died aboard the ship which was the most heavily damaged major vessel to survive the war. The film is a fitting tribute to those brave men. Also included are some other really interesting films including one about the sea battles that raged around the Phillipines during the U.S. invasion.

'Warships: Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay' simply has a handful of old WW2 training/news films such as 'Your Ship' on it. If that wasn't bad enough they didn't bother to clean up the footage or the audio and it has numerous skips and other issues with both the audio and the film itself. Somewhat comical is that each clip has a dire 'do not copy' warning attached to it. Isn't this stuff all public domain?! Some of the footage IS indeed interesting but the narration is all but useless unless you are studying the old training films themselves. Anyone looking for some historical perspective or analysis on WW2 naval operations can look elsewhere as there is none here at all. For die hard naval fans only or those interested only in the footage itself.