Great Battles of World War II

Rating:
Summary: Interesting historical films worth about what you'll pay
Review: The packaging provides virtually no information about what the box contains, which turns out to be three of Frank Capra's official postwar propaganda films covering some of the major campaigns. "Great Battles" is really a misnomer because for example the D-Day film covers not just the beaches but the entire reconquest of western Europe other than Italy. The films are well made and contain some interesting footage and commentary (the first-person accounts seem to be spoken by actors), but on two of the discs the visual quality is poor, either because the original film has deteriorated or because of a poor transfer, or perhaps both. In any case the light colours have become so bleached out that some of the scenes and maps don't give much information. There are some noticeable gaps in the continuity as well. The extra features are perfunctory -- just a few text screens. For the price this is not a bad set, but don't expect anything of archival quality.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting historical films worth about what you'll pay
Review: The packaging provides virtually no information about what the box contains, which turns out to be three of Frank Capra's official postwar propaganda films covering some of the major campaigns. "Great Battles" is really a misnomer because for example the D-Day film covers not just the beaches but the entire reconquest of western Europe other than Italy. The films are well made and contain some interesting footage and commentary (the first-person accounts seem to be spoken by actors), but on two of the discs the visual quality is poor, either because the original film has deteriorated or because of a poor transfer, or perhaps both. In any case the light colours have become so bleached out that some of the scenes and maps don't give much information. There are some noticeable gaps in the continuity as well. The extra features are perfunctory -- just a few text screens. For the price this is not a bad set, but don't expect anything of archival quality.

Rating:
Summary: Frankly, pretty bad
Review: This is a remarkably bad presentation of the "great battles" of World War II. To begin with, in an alleged introduction to the causes of WW II - probably written at a time in 1946 when the Soviets had to be pleased - the authors do not EVEN MENTION THE SOVIET-GERMAN PACT OF 1939 !!!! The rest is a superficial, long winded, boring collection of news footage and other pictures, with poor sound and rudimentary texts. To be avoided.

Rating:
Summary: Shilling facts of a sinister war (Outstandin footage)
Review: This series will keep you in suspence. The emotional facts of this great World War are depicted and will crawl into you as if you are living in that area. For all history lover (like myself), I stongly recommend it. You can learn more about WWII than any other medium. From: Reda ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Shilling facts of a sinister war (Outstandin footage)
Review: This series will keep you in suspence. The emotional facts of this great World War are depicted and will crawl into you as if you are living in that area. For all history lover (like myself), I stongly recommend it. You can learn more about WWII than any other medium. From: Reda ([e-mail])