Rating: Summary: Decent documentary hampered by factual and technical details Review: Being a WW2 buff I purchased this DVD collection recently.
The video portion of this documentary is very good... pretty much all of the footage is authentic historic footage... even though sometimes the footage repeats itself couple of times...
But generaly the video portion is very strong with editing and the added news reels are extra bonus.
Sound is a different story. The narrator's voice is actually pretty good with all the english accent and such... but whoever was mixing the narration and the music should be fired immediately. The music is just too damn loud in some parts, pretty much drowning the narrators voice with very loud score. The fact that the music repeats itself constantly is noticeable when you are watching couple of the episodes back to back. I've also noticed that at the end of Episode XI - Overlord the sound is cut off completly for roughly a full minute before the episode ends...
Another thing is the historical accuracy. The collection is actually pretty good but there are some VERY BAD portions... The one that really got me was the narrator's line in Episode VII - The Day of Infamy stating that the japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on the 11th of December 1941 - and couple of lines later stating the correct date of 7th of December 1941... OOPS!!!... now that is a big mistake that should not be tolerated on this so called "historical documentary"
Another very bad thing is the sheer number of typos.. in the documentary itself, in the DVD navigational menus and the DVD printed package... misspellings like Operation Bar Barossa (correctly Barbarossa), Battle of Kirsk (instead of Kursk), Operation Overload (instead of Overlord), Divine Win (instead of Divine Wind), Air Suppremacy (instead of Supremacy) should not be tolerated!!!... This makes me wonder what is the "quality control" at the publishers office...
If these important mistakes were corrected I would have given this collection 4,5 to 5 stars... but as it is stands now all of these very bad mistakes are dragging this DVD collection to the ground...
I was able to purchase it for $19.00 so if you get the chance to get this 5 DVD collection for the same amount or less it is worth it just for the video by itself...
Rating: Summary: Great info, needs some work on the music editing Review: Fantastic DVD except that the music editor should have been fired, over all the background music is too loud and in some parts quite distracting.The rest of the DVD's are fantastic and well layed out, so if you can put up with a few spots of over baring music it's a must see.
Rating: Summary: In-depth & less expensive than most WWII documentaries Review: I give it 5 stars because for the price you get a lot, look at 'World At War', over $90
its is accurate nad entertaining with what sounds like Hugo Weaving doing the narration, true the music is annoying but that doesnt overshadow the quality of this documentary and all the areas it covers...and it is long 5 discs & 11hours worth of veiwing...what more can you ask for
Rating: Summary: Pretty Good Info Surrounding World War 2 Review: I purchased this 5 set DVD recently and I thought that the info presented on it was very excellent and I really liked the extras that the DVD has(especially the newsreels). However, I do think that the music that's on the DVD could have been toned down a bit in order to hear what's being said.All in all, this is a good DVD that is worthwhile to anyone whose intrested in the Second World War.
Rating: Summary: Great Content but some sound issues Review: I really enjoyed this series. It is an EXCELLENT deal. Dollar for dollar this is my best investment in my DVD library. There are eleven hours of footage. It includes old newsreels as a bonus.
It's a lot like a talking history book. It was written from a British perspective, which is enlightening for Americans like myself. It was very informative and links all the way back to the treaties after WWI and pushes forward past the end of WWII. It was very descriptive about the details of every year of the war and flowed well.
On the down side: Disc 2 has some parts where the background music is louder than the narrator. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available, so it's next to impossible to understand those sections. I tried playing on several systems and it still sounded bad, so its probably not my audio configuration. However, the problem is limited to only certain sections of that one disc. The majority of the series does not have that problem.
Rating: Summary: One of the Best Review: One of the best documentaries about World War 2. Very informative from the political and military perspective of the war. Great narration and footage. A MUST SEE!
Rating: Summary: One fo the BEST Review: One of the best documentaries, informative from the political and military perspective of the war. Great narration and footage. A MUST SEE!
Rating: Summary: One fo the BEST Review: One of the best documentaries, informative from the political and military perspective of the war. Great narration and footage. A MUST SEE!
Rating: Summary: Fantastic content. Lousy audio Review: Overall, this is a fantastic DVD, with tons and tons of details. However, the audio in some spots is absolutely horrid. The music is overpowering and you can barely hear the narrator. Too bad. Otherwise, this is and excellent DVD set.
Rating: Summary: Good info, shoddy workmanship Review: The information presented in the documentary is very good, and holds one's interest. However, the incessant soundtrack behind the narrative is repetitive, and often completely mismatched to the topic being addressed. Worse, the music is at times so loud as to entirely drown out the narrator.
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