The World At War: Complete TV Series [DVD]

Original footage with narrated by Lawrence Olivier, worth the outlay.

Superbly narrated! For anyone interested in WWII this DVD series is highly recommended. At time of writing this recommendation I haven’t finished watching all the DVDs but to date this series is superb.

I have binge-watched 20 of the 26 episodes and whilst much TV from the 70s - even what you remember fondly - has dated quite badly, this documentary remains masterful. You just keep wanting to see the next episode. The simple bringing together of archive footage, the key people who were there just being allowed to talk, and Olivier's considered but compelling narration, does not look its 43 years. The range - truly global - reflects and emphasises the global nature of the war. Plus the focus on the military reminds you how extraordinarily difficult a lot of it was to pull off (on both sides). And how cruel and random war can be. Meanwhile for those of us watching in 2016 when this is now really really history it's amazing to see so many of the key players talk - Doenitz and Speer and Himmler's chief of staff and Hitler's secretary, Eden, Harris, Mountbatten, Rab Butler. Not to mention ordinary people and Auschwitz survivors. Of all the people interviewed I think only one is still alive, Vera Lynn and she's 99. There are also innovations that you still see today - an introduction before the opening titles, freeze framing the last frame for the run out, the use of music generally. Ironically it was all harder to watch originally as it was first shown through the difficult winter of 1973-74 with the 3 day week and regular power cuts. In terms of quality, I have the DVD, it's a bit grainy but as good as it could be, a great restoration. As for the much debated cropping issue, maybe it's worse on the Bluray but I don't get it. I suppose having read the reviews there is a minor cropping at top and bottom but I don't see sections of heads cut off. Watching it full screen on my 42" screen is an immersive experience that it just wouldn't be if in original format with sides in black (like Brideshead that I rewatched recently) and even though I'd read the reviews before I bought I just haven't noticed it as I've watched. Maybe it would be different if I could remember watching it originally when it came out (when I was 9) but I don't think I saw much of it then. One final note - for anyone who grew up with ITV in the 70s the start of each episode with the Thames TV logo and short jingle is a little kick of nostalgia every time. I keep expecting the Magpie theme tune to come next.

Have been watching these for the past several Sunday afternoonsEvéyone should watch this series

Everyone who recognises great documentary film making and acknowledges landmark TV productions should have ‘The World at War’ in their DVD collection. It’s unfortunate that Amazon has chosen to lump together all reviews of the various releases of this seminal 1970s Thames TV documentary series, as it’s now more difficult for prospective buyers to sort wheat from chaff and compare the often radically different editions.The 2010 ‘Ultimate restored 40th Anniversary’ blu-ray release from Fremantle is the subject of this review.Great claims are made about the improvements in image and sound quality. At the same time the decision to change the aspect ratio from the original 4:3 (the shape of 1970s TV screens) to 16:9 (to fit 21st century widescreen TVs) is widely slated by purists, and they definitely have a point - more on this later.Fremantle invested a lot of time and expertise in the restoration, and if you watch the original TV series and compare it with this new edition then you have to say the effort was worth it. The decision to return to the original archive film and work from that, rather than from the 1970s TV tapes was the right one. Most of the 1940s colour film – where used – looks spectacularly better after the skilful 21st century restoration than in the series as broadcast in the 1970s. Brightness is improved, scratches on the archive film have disappeared, flicker smoothed out. The numerous interviews with people such as Karl Donitz, Albert Speer and other luminaries from Germany, Britain, France, Russia, Japan and the US which brought such authority to the series - as well as those ordinary citizens involved in these events - have also been refreshed with skilled use of modern digital technology and are all the better for it.The sound is also improved on the blu-ray: even without external speakers to exploit the excellent 5.1 DTS surround sound, the difference is noticeable. The menus may be brought up at any time whilst the disks are running, the graphics easy-on-the-eye and navigation even when you drill down to the sub-menus is effortless. Moreover the disks may be paused for hours or even switched off if your viewing is interrupted, and pick up right where you left off.As extras you get the three 1-hour programs about Germany under Hitler rarely broadcast or seen after the original TV screening in the 1970s, and a 2-part documentary telling the story of ‘The Final Solution’ including some illuminating insights into the cult of the SS, and an extensive face-to-camera interview with Himmler’s deputy Karl Wolf. You get the full-length interviews with Hitler’s secretary Traudl Junge, historian Stephen Ambrose, Vannevar Bush and others of which only snippets were used in the 26 episodes. There are long features on the making of the series by Jeremy Isaacs and his team, on the theme music by Carl Davis, on the precise techniques used by the restoration team. There’s also some astounding combat footage excluded from the 26 episodes; all absorbing stuff and well worth watching, though most of this material does not include Laurence Olivier’s epic voiceover-narration.On the subject of the much criticised 16:9 aspect ratio, I would make the following observations. Most of what is cropped from the top and bottom of the images to reduce the 4:3 film to the more letterbox-shaped 16:9 you don’t miss: empty sky or ground cropped from the battle images, for example, actually improves the result as it focuses the eyes more on the important stuff going on in the middle, and particularly where the film has been restored and improved the result is great. Where the cropped images irritate most is during the interviews: the ID of the interviewee was permanently scored onto the original film in white lettering at the foot of the frame so must be visible to the viewer, which leaves only the top to suffer the cropping. I frankly think Fremantle might have done a better job with this: the number of interviewees with the top part of the head cropped off really is annoying, and one can’t help but feel the overall result might have been better if the interviews had been in some cases retained in their 4:3 format, with black borders to the side of the screen just for the interview segment. The restorers claim the entire original 4:3 films were restored first and edit-cropped to 16:9 later, so is it too much to ask for a release offering each episode in both aspect ratios? With blu-ray surely this would be possible, and at little extra cost.So in summary, Fremantle has done a fine job with this enduring and important epic. Leaving the minor irritant of the cropping of talking-head interviewees to one side, overall this is probably the best edition of TWaW you can buy. Almost everything is significantly improved and if the restored episodes were also made available in their original 4:3 aspect in the same package, it would be perfect.

j'ai pas eu le temps encore de visionner les vidéos mais je suis très content de l'avoir reçu l'emballage tout défait mais tous les disques étaient présents

The World at War must rank as one of the best television documentaries ever produced. Thames Television devoted three years (1971-74) to making the series, which is perhaps the most expensive documentary of all time—the entire series cost £900,000 (equivalent to roughly $16,000,000 in 2019 US dollars). But it was conceived as a collection of separate stories, and not a comprehensive account of the conflict. In these stories, although the emphasis is on military developments, civilian life is not neglected; and attention is given to the situations of ordinary persons (soldiers and civilians) as well as the decisions of their leaders. The 23-hour main series includes the following episodes:Germany—3 episodes: (1933-39), (1940-44), (1945); Britain—2 episodes: (1939-40), (1940-44); France—1 episode (1940); Russia—3 episodes: (1941) (1942-43: Sralingrad), (1941-43); Japan—2 episodes: (1931-42), (1941-45); U.S.—1 episode (1939-42); North Africa—1 episode (1940-43); Battle of the Atlantic—1 episode (1939-44); Air War Against Germany—1 episode (1939-44); Italy—1 episode (1942-44); Burma—1 episode (1942-44); Normandy—1 episode (1944); Occupied Holland—1 episode (1940-44); Liberating Europe—1 episode (1944-45: Western Europe, Warsaw Uprising, Battle of the Bulge); War in the Pacific—1 episode (1942-45); Atomic Bomb—1 episode (1945); Genocide—1 episode (1941-45).The series includes 11 hours of bonus material that employs portions of film and interviews that are omitted from the main series. The bonus series includes: Making the Series (2 episodes); Genocide, 1941-45 (2 episodes); Germany, 1933-1945 (2 episodes); Retrospectives (2 episodes); Hitler’s Death (1945); 20-minute commentaries by Traudl Junge and Stephen Ambrose. There are also excerpts from various interviews, assorted still photographs, capsule biographies of major dramatis personae, and a brief textual account of how The World at War was produced.There is a certain lack of balance in the series. For example, there are five episodes dealing with Germany. The producers chose to deal with the resistance movement in Holland (perhaps because English-speaking interviewees were relatively easy to find, or because Holland’s experience was suggestive of what might have happened in Britain if it were occupied by the Germans). But the program neglects the more important resistance movement in Yugoslavia, and there is nothing about the wartime clash between Nationalist and Communist forces in China.Most of the film used in The World at War (which was collected from government and private collections around the world) was originally intended for newsreels. Most of it is black and white, although there is some color photography. The producers edited the film to fit the allotted time slots, and dubbed in appropriate sounds (explosions, gun fire, etc., since most of the film was silent), narrative (most by Laurence Olivier, but some by Eric Porter), commentary by participants, and music (some written by Carl Davis, but also some wartime music from Britain, France, the U.S., Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan). The producers sought to minimize the narrative, preferring to let the pictures and the interviews tell the story.The producers were able to interview a wide assortment of persons. Among the British interviewees are J. R. Colville (Churchill’s secretary), Anthony Eden (who held various posts in wartime Britain), Arthur Harris (head of RAF Bomber Command), various RAF pilots, Army and Navy officers, and Louis Mountbatten. American interviewees include Vannevar Bush, Mark Clark, James Doolittle, J. Lawton Collins, John Kenneth Galbraith, Averell Harriman, Curtis LeMay, Bill Mauldin, John McCloy, Jimmie Stewart, Kate Summersby (Eisenhower’s British driver/personal secretary), and ordinary soldiers and civilians. Many Germans were interviewed for this series, among them Paul Schmidt (Hitler’s interpreter), Albert Speer (German production minister), Karl Dönitz (Commander of U-boats, then of German navy, and final leader of Third Reich), Wehrmacht officers Walter Warlimont and Siegfried Weshphal, Adolf Galland (fighter pilot and later Luftwaffe fighter commander) and other fighter pilots, Otto Kretschmer (U-boat captain) and other U-boat captains, Karl Wolff (Himmler’s adjutant), German civilians and resistance leaders, including Evald von Kleist-Schmenzin and Emmi Bonhoeffer (sister-in-law of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Japan is represented by Marquis Kido (the Emperor’s chief advisor), Tomohiko Ushiba (the Prime Minister’s private secretary), Toshikazu Kase (Foreign Minister Matsuoka’s private secretary), and various army and navy officers and civilians. Soviet interviewees include several high-ranking Soviet generals, a partisan, a housewife and a factory worker. The series also assembled commentary from Polish and Dutch civilians.The series obtained commentary on Pearl Harbor from Minoru Genda (who planned the attack), Mitsuo Fuchida (who led it), Masatake Okumiya (a participating pilot), George Elliott (radar operator whose warning of approaching aircraft was disregarded), and various U.S. sailors and journalists. For details about Hitler’s death, the producers drew on interviews with Traudl Junge (Hitler’s private secretary), Heinz Linge (Hitler’s valet), Faust Shkaransky (who led the Soviet autopsy of Hitler’s body), Yelena Reveshkaya (Soviet interpreter), Keith Simpson (British forensic surgeon), and Hugh Trevor-Roper (author of the British study of Hitler’s final hours)All of these interviews shed important light on the subject. On the other hand, it should be noted that among those interviewed there are, I believe, only two Frenchmen, one Italian, and no one from Scandinavia, or Asia (apart from Japan).The World at War is also available in Blu-ray, but, given the low quality of much of the original film, it is questionable whether it can significantly improve the on-screen appearance; and the Blu-ray version apparently cropped out part of the images.Due to obvious time constraints, the television documentary, even with the addition of the bonus episodes, could not make use of all the research and interviews conducted for the series. The companion volume, The World at War, by Mark Arnold-Forster (1973) covers the same ground, but in much greater detail. Similarly, additional material from the interviews is presented in The World at War: The Landmark Oral History, edited by Richard Holmes (2007).

Fascinating and detailed account of the war.

Per gli appassionati della Seconda Guerra Mondiale direi che è quasi un must. molte ore di documentari con parecchie immagini inedite, il commento di Laurence Olivier è chiaro e accessibile anche a chi non ha grandissima padronanza della lingua inglese.Le numerose testimonianze di varie persone che hanno vissuto gli avvenimenti sono precise e, a volte, perfino commoventi.sono molto soddisfatta e ne consiglio senz'altro l' acquisto

Edición UK (ASIN: B003IN7YPU) de esta necesaria obra sobre la 2ª Guerra Mundial. Cada uno de los episodios así como los extras cuentan, exclusivamente, con subtítulos opcionales en inglés.En cuanto a la imagen, es cierto que su formato original (1.37:1 o 4:3) ha sido modificado en favor del 16:9. Esta reconversión no ha sido hecha de manera gratuita, por lo que en muy pocas ocasiones notarás este detalle. Numerosos análisis en Internet corroboran este hecho. Por ejemplo, véase la review disponible en la web especializada: bluray.com.El sonido se presenta en dos codificaciones: un excelente DTS-HD MA 5.1 y también un buen LPCM 2.0. Las dos pistas son de calidad.Extras numerosos repartidos en los 9 BD's presentes en esta edición.En conclusión: edición imprescindible para saber todo lo necesario sobre los sucesos acaecidos en la 2ª Guerra Mundial.