The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History

Rating:
Summary: The most leftist, anti-Reagan, anti-Israel video ever!
Review: As the main review of this video indicates, the entire series is presented from a single leftist (not liberal, but truly leftist) perspective. In addition, executive producers WALEED ALI and MALIK ALI paint a very anti-Israel -- bordering on anti-Semetic -- picture of events, and never miss an opportunity to denounce Israel while glorifying Yassir Arafat and the PLO. The more recent footage of the 1980's and 1990's is clearly anti-Reagan and anti-Bush. And all the failings of Clinton are brushed aside and blamed on the media rather on the man himself. If you want a balanced perspective, buy some other video (if there is one). This one was just too one-sided, even for a liberal-leaning individual like me.

Rating:
Summary: Missed opportunity
Review: At 11 hours in length, this series had the potential to be an excellent overview of the most eventful one hundred years in human history. Unfortunately, a preoccupation with race relations and anti-war and labor movements as seen from a uniformly leftist perspective renders this a highly unwatchable series for serious historians and newcomers alike. Not that these events were unimportant, but the documentary is so leftist in its perspective that it tends to trivialize the great conflicts of the century as if the final outcome of the various movements should have been clear to everyone all along. A really sorry effort of a documentary. Unless you like unchallenging documentaries that make little effort to delve into the complexities of the 20th century, avoid this turkey at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Missed opportunity
Review: At 11 hours in length, this series had the potential to be an excellent overview of the most eventful one hundred years in human history. Unfortunately, a preoccupation with race relations and anti-war and labor movements as seen from a uniformly leftist perspective renders this a highly unwatchable series for serious historians and newcomers alike. Not that these events were unimportant, but the documentary is so leftist in its perspective that it tends to trivialize the great conflicts of the century as if the final outcome of the various movements should have been clear to everyone all along. A really sorry effort of a documentary. Unless you like unchallenging documentaries that make little effort to delve into the complexities of the 20th century, avoid this turkey at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Great film survey of an entire century
Review: I found this a fascinating overview of a topic that is too big for 12 hours of film -- 10 decades of mostly U.S. and some world history. There is a good balance of topics between wars-and-dates, popular culture and personalities, and the changes in conditions of regular people -- workers, soldiers, immigrants, and women.

An ongoing theme is the evolution of things we now take for granted, such as access to information, equal rights, a decent standard of living, and core American values and civil rights. Most events are dealt with only briefly, an unfortunate necessity given the medium. But the topics, images, and film clips are always interesting.

I read the reviews here before I saw the DVD and was watching for a left-not-just-liberal slant, but I saw very little for most "hot button" topics mentioned. There is little time even spent on Israel and the Palestinians, for example. And the internment of Japanese-Americans in WW II got only a brief mention, much shorter than the time devoted to "Casablanca."

Yes, the film was sympathetic to the rights of minorities, but it didn't focus much time on Civil Rights except during the 60's. Yes, early Socialists were portrayed as idealistic in response to capitalist excesses, but Stalin and Mao were portrayed as evil. Nixon's achievements at home and abroad were praised as brave and underappreciated, while his personality was portrayed as contributing to his downfall. The survey of Clinton's presidency focused mostly on scandals.

Perhaps recent events are still too fresh for either the film's makers or its viewers to see in a fully "historical" context. I found the coverage of the recent decades adequate, but I was even more interested in the presentation of the early decades and the portrayal of various cause-and-effect trends across the decades.

I recommend this 4-sided DVD set, and think it is worth your time. It comes with a table of contents that lists the 100+ chapters, and a very detailed 35-page index. I wish it or its Web site ...included more depth about the myriad of topics that are touched upon, or at least references for further reading, but I guess that's what the library is for.

Rating:
Summary: Great film survey of an entire century
Review: I found this a fascinating overview of a topic that is too big for 12 hours of film -- 10 decades of mostly U.S. and some world history. There is a good balance of topics between wars-and-dates, popular culture and personalities, and the changes in conditions of regular people -- workers, soldiers, immigrants, and women.

An ongoing theme is the evolution of things we now take for granted, such as access to information, equal rights, a decent standard of living, and core American values and civil rights. Most events are dealt with only briefly, an unfortunate necessity given the medium. But the topics, images, and film clips are always interesting.

I read the reviews here before I saw the DVD and was watching for a left-not-just-liberal slant, but I saw very little for most "hot button" topics mentioned. There is little time even spent on Israel and the Palestinians, for example. And the internment of Japanese-Americans in WW II got only a brief mention, much shorter than the time devoted to "Casablanca."

Yes, the film was sympathetic to the rights of minorities, but it didn't focus much time on Civil Rights except during the 60's. Yes, early Socialists were portrayed as idealistic in response to capitalist excesses, but Stalin and Mao were portrayed as evil. Nixon's achievements at home and abroad were praised as brave and underappreciated, while his personality was portrayed as contributing to his downfall. The survey of Clinton's presidency focused mostly on scandals.

Perhaps recent events are still too fresh for either the film's makers or its viewers to see in a fully "historical" context. I found the coverage of the recent decades adequate, but I was even more interested in the presentation of the early decades and the portrayal of various cause-and-effect trends across the decades.

I recommend this 4-sided DVD set, and think it is worth your time. It comes with a table of contents that lists the 100+ chapters, and a very detailed 35-page index. I wish it or its Web site ...included more depth about the myriad of topics that are touched upon, or at least references for further reading, but I guess that's what the library is for.

Rating:
Summary: The 20h Century: A moving Visual Hisory
Review: I loved the VHS version of this documentary, so I ordered the DVD. I was truly astonished to see that it had been entirely re-written from a leftist (not liberal, but leftist) perspective that, among other things, lets Marx and Lenin off the hook for the misery they wrought on millions. Please buy the VHS original version and forget this revisionist attempt at re-writing history. Lincoln said, "If history isn't true then it isn't history." This could be said of this documentary.

Rating:
Summary: Very unbalanced series
Review: If you are a granola crunching Nixon hater with a world view restricted to what happened in the United States, this series is a great purchase.

There is little attempt to show history other than from a leftist standpoint. The 1980s are titled The Decade of Greed while the 1990s are referred to as American Hard Drive. It always struck me that there was more selfishness exhibited in the 1990s than the 1980s but this would not conform with Motyl's worldview.

Rating:
Summary: Good through the 1970s
Review: Overall, this is a pretty good survey of most of the 20th century, although, like any attempt to capture 100 years on 10 VHS tapes, it cannot please everyone. Some interesting and important things are left out, but for the most part, it is a useful and entertaining series--at least up to 1980.
In the 1980s and 1990s videos, the film takes a decidedly leftist slant (it is there all along slightly, but not excessively so). The most glaring example comes when the first Gulf War is described as a set of war crimes by the United States, but the slant is clear throughout those two volumes (even if Clinton is linked with Nixon in the opening montage).
I still enjoy the series, and say this as a conservative and a professional historian and teacher (M.A. in history, M.Ed. in secondary education), but am sorry that the producers damaged their credibility with such obviously partisan approaches to the last two decades of the century.

Rating:
Summary: Good through the 1970s
Review: Overall, this is a pretty good survey of most of the 20th century, although, like any attempt to capture 100 years on 10 VHS tapes, it cannot please everyone. Some interesting and important things are left out, but for the most part, it is a useful and entertaining series--at least up to 1980.
In the 1980s and 1990s videos, the film takes a decidedly leftist slant (it is there all along slightly, but not excessively so). The most glaring example comes when the first Gulf War is described as a set of war crimes by the United States, but the slant is clear throughout those two volumes (even if Clinton is linked with Nixon in the opening montage).
I still enjoy the series, and say this as a conservative and a professional historian and teacher (M.A. in history, M.Ed. in secondary education), but am sorry that the producers damaged their credibility with such obviously partisan approaches to the last two decades of the century.