Customer Reviews

Why We Fight (WWII Capra Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the worst DVD transfer I have ever seen. You may have to fiddle with the settings on your DVD player or you'll be cursed with a major amount of buzzing and crackling no matter what the volume on your TV or sound system.

Mine was also defective, showing about three minutes of Triumph of the Will before returning to the main menu. I tried it both on my home theater DVD player and my DVD ROM (just in case one might have been having problems like the sound issue). It failed to play in both.

No wonder these DVD's are so cheap. They're cheaply made. Quality is an afterthought. I can't even believe that anyone at the company that made them watched them because anyone with a shred of integrity wouldn't have let them out the door.

I am SORELY disappointed. Sadly I opened the volumes I bought, so I'm stuck with them. I'll probably get rid of them in a garage sale someday.

Do yourself a favor, buy one of the more recommended VHS versions, or wait until a company that actually cares about quality puts out a new edition. These are AMAZINGLY bad.

This program is very good at zeroing in on the Nazis to show how ordinary people did terrible things within the framework of the larger state. It also does an excellent job of explaining the Nazi world view. I have always been a history person and have started to watch more Nazi programs. Part of Frank Capra's ""Why We Fight"" series.

Really nice footage, and explanations for the quick, fast paced actions of the Nazi's. This film shows the speed and fury of the Nazi Blitzkreig War Machine. The Picture in this footage has been upgraded, but still not up to HD standards.

Great film, very educational. My Class loved it.

If you purchased this for 1 cent + postage - demand a refund, you paid too much. The film quality is terrible! This is a cheap copy of a very well made original. The latter is a product of the U.S. government, so copyright free. Thus the really bad quality of this video is a crime. Even the slick box art is bad, as the first part of Capra's series has little to do with massed B-17s! Avoid and seek a better copy, or watch on the net.

The seven films which comprise Frank Capra's WHY WE FIGHT are classic examples of wartime propaganda. But it's important to remember that the United States were one of the "Good Guys" in World War II. These films were mandatory viewing for members of the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII intending to give them perspective and reason for why their country was asking them to risk their lives in a foreign war. They depict Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo as evil men bent on world domination and frankly, history has never proven otherwise. It's also fascinating to see how the U.S. was on the same side as Communist Russia and soon-to-be Communist China during WWII, prior to the Cold War which followed. Essential viewing for World War II buffs and scholars.

If you're a patriot, if you're a pacifist, if you're a Christian, Muslim or Jew - do yourself and your fellow man a favor and see this documentary. This is no Michael Moore rant or a Chomsky polemic. This film explores the whole phenomena of the American military and the American empire in the voices of regular citizens like you and me as well as the players that make it happen today. It starts with Dwight Eisenhower's fairwell to the American people in which he cautions against the growth of the Military-Industrial complex and follows its growth up to the present telling the stories of people like a Vietnamese woman who emigrated in 1975 and is now a weapons engineer. There's the retired police officer whose son died in 9/11 and who we see moved along in his thinking as the war in Iraq develops. This film holds a mirror up to each one of us and asks us to take a long hard look at who we have become.

While the content of these videos is very interesting and informative. The quality of the footage needs a little bit to be desired. Remember, this is not a documentary!!!! These films were made as propaganda films and should be viewed as such. While many of the facts contained in the films are accurate, they are a little biased, but that's what to expect from propaganda films.

As a part of history, I think these films are valuable. They are certainly worth watching (but as I said before, not as a documentary). I think they are a little overpriced for what you get.

This video shows how Japan, Italy and Germany got to be powerfull nations and ready for war. Good video for people who are not very sure how the war started.

This is a powerful and disturbing film, examining how the military-industrial complex (which President Eisenhower warned us about upon departing office in 1961) has twisted American's foreign policy for its own ends. The film-maker clearly has an agenda in terms of criticizing American foreign policy, but the film actually provides a fairly convincing case about the numerous conflicts of interests that exist and its negative effects. Whether you agree or not with all the film's conclusions, it raises issues that ought to be the topic of earnest and honest debate.

There has been a political documentary, of recent vintage, called Why We Fight, which tries to examine the infamous Military Industrial Complex and its grip on this nation. It is considered both polemical and incisive in making its case against both that complex and the war fiasco we are currently involved in in Iraq. Yet, a far more famous series of films, with the same name, was made during World War Two, by Hollywood director Frank Capra. Although considered documentaries, and having won Oscars in that category, this series of seven films is really and truly mere agitprop, more in the vein of Leni Reifenstal's Triumph Of The Will, scenes of which Capra recycles for his own purposes. That said, that fact does not mean it does not have vital information that subsequent generations of World War Two documentaries (such as the BBC's lauded The World At War) lacked, nor does that mean that its value as a primary source is any the less valuable. They are skillfully made, and after recently purchasing some used DVDs at a discount store, I found myself with the opportunity to select a free DVD with my purchase. I chose Goodtimes DVD's four DVD collection of the series.
Rarely has something free been so worth invaluable. While there are no extras on the DVDs, and the sound quality of the prints varies, these films provide insight into the minds of Americans two thirds of a century ago, when racism was overt (as in many of the classic Warner Brothers pro-war cartoons of the era), and there was nothing wrong with blatant distortion of facts. The seven films, produced between 1942 and 1945, are Prelude To War, The Nazis Strike, Divide And Conquer, The Battle Of Britain, The Battle Of Russia, The Battle Of China, and War Comes To America.
Overall, the film series is well worth watching, not only for the obvious reasons, but for the subtle things it reveals, such as the use of the plural for terms like X millions when referring to dollars, rather than the modern singular, or the most overused graphic in the whole series- a Japanese sword piercing the center of Manchuria. Yet, it also shows the complexities of trying to apply past standards to current wars. The lesson of World War One (avoid foreign entanglements) was not applicable to World War Two, whose own lesson (act early against dictatorships) has not been applicable in the three major wars America has fought since: Korea, Vietnam, nor Iraq. The fact that much of this series teeters on the uncertainties of the times it was made in only underscores its historic value in today's information-clogged times. It may not help you sort out the truth from the lies and propaganda of today, but at least you'll realize you are not the first to be in such a tenuous position, nor will you be the last.