Customer Reviews

World War I: The Great War

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

 

 

Since it's not mentioned in any of the info, I felt it might be useful to mention that this DVD set is not a documentary "series" like most of the other Great War DVD sets out there, but rather a broad collection of different A&E and History Channel shows about The Great War from the past 15 years. As one would expect from two American television channels, much of the content is fully or mostly America-centric, but this isn't necessarily a problem if you have other Great War sets to "even" out the presented information. If one considers the price of this set on Amazon (which one shouldn't, because it is available at many other retailers for drastically less), it would probably lose another star. All things considered, it's a good addition to any Great War buff's collection.

For those who truly enjoy watching videos concerning the First World War and who as well avidly watch the History Channel, then this is the perfect set. Each disc contains a variety of previously played programs from both A&E and the History Channel (the main source). Some is rather old programing, being from the 1990's but there are the gems in the collection. Most of the programs are produced after 2003. All but one is 50 minutes in length; the other, 90 minutes.
On the second disc are such programs as "The First Dogfighters" (from the series "Dogfights") and "Red Baron and The Wings Of Death," which comes from, "Man, Moment, Machine." On the third disc, there is the shows, "WWI: Jutland" and "WWI:The Somme," both of which I believe are from the "Battlefield Detectives" series.
Overall, when one buys such a collection, it must be assumed that all the shows are those that have been played on television before. The reason to buy is because one wants to have it in their collection minus commercials or because it is unavailable elsewhere. This is by far one of the better collections on World War One and would be a prize for any fan of military history to have in their collection.

A hodge podge of World War I shows from the History Channel. This is not a series, but, rather just a bunch of random specials about the War, and has no organization or structure to it. Don't waste your money. After having watched World At War (the pinnacle of World War II documentaries), as well as The First World War: The Complete Series, this was a HUGE let down.

For someone who knows little or nothing about the actual conduct of the first world war, this set has some informative segments, but it absolutely is not even a definitive collection, no less, as the History Channel claims, THE definitive collection. There is much information that is repeated in various segments, which apparently were originally created as stand alone episodes. And, based on documentaries concerning the second world war that I have seen, I can imagine that there is a significant amount of material that is left out of the story of this one.

Personally, I generally enjoyed watching it and found some episodes particularly informative, but for someone who really wants to research the history of WWI, this set will certainly leave much to be desired.

One of the other reviewers indicated that they thought that this set seemed to lean toward looking at the war from the American perspective. I would disagree. It would be true however to state that almost none of these episodes really presented the point of view of any of the Central Powers (who ultimately lost the war).

In summary, if you like the History Channel, you will probably enjoy this sampling of programs from regular features related specifically, in one way or another, to the first world war.

Would I buy it again, knowing what I know? Definitely not.

I purchased this set in Bust Buy right after watching two episodes of THE FIRST WORLD WAR on the Military Channel. I did realize they were different programs, but this group of programs, although some are quite interesting, are not of the same quality of the other program set.
These are episodes from various History Channel programs, such as Modern Marvels, which have been thrown together to make a box set. They do not cover the war start to finish, in a chronological fashion, as other sets do. For instance there is a program on the American Dough Boys and on on the German Ace, the Red Baron. It's very disjointed.
I would recommend the "World War One" set narrated by Robert Ryan and "The First World War - The Complete Series". They are outstanding! Those sets provide an historical, chronological overview of the War in battles and effects on the Home Fronts.

"World War I The Great War" from the History Channel/A&E contains some interesting footage and is generally worthwhile. It lacks, however, an overall narrative coherence compared to some other documentaries on this seminal global event that unleashed forces that caused such tragedy throughout the remainder of the 20th century up to the present.

The best is the Channel Four series "The First World War" based on the book by Prof. Hew Strachan, which is the most globally comprehensive overall. Its espisode "Jihad 1914-1916" provides material rarely seen, at least in the U.S., and is especially helpful in understanding some of the background to the current turmoil throughout the Middle East. Another other rightly acclaimed comprehensive, albeit too light on Eastern Europe, documentary is CBS' "The Complete Story: World War I (2003)", which was originally produced in 1964 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the war's beginning. It has more of a U.S. focus whereas the other is Europe and Brt. Empire focused.

I gave the book to my 10 year old nephew for Christmas. He is really into military history. He has told me that he loves the book. As a history major from college, I flipped through the book prior to giving it to my nephew and I was impressed with the language content and the pictures as well.

I thought this would be a documentary, but it was just a collection of History Channel shows. I bought two more WWI DVD sets, and out of all of them the best one was:The First World War - The Complete Series

Not a chronology of the war, this is a collection of previously shown History Channel shows that delve into a wide variety of WWI topics. That makes it quite entertaining because you are not bogged down and can pick and choose what to watch and when without feeling guilty that you are skipping something. All the shows are high quality. Plenty of great footage. My only caveat is that many of the same WWI vets appear more than once in various shows, but, hey, there weren't many of them still around in the years when these shows were made.

As Kirk M says, this is a cheap imitation of a documentary. The only thing that holds it together is the general subject matter. Save your money.