National Geographic - Beyond the Movie - Pearl Harbor

Rating:
Summary: A mediocre attempt at giving background information
Review: The main problem of this DVD was the overreliance on the movie for everything. The historical data was good and interesting but frequent use of movie cutscenes ruined any atmosphere. This DVD attempted to be both a behind-the-scenes featurette and a documentary and pretty much failed as both to be interesting and watchable.

The format of the DVD was a "Question and Answer" and short simplified answers were given (though some were good) that was in total 53 minutes long. The special features consisted of old news reel stories and propaganda (which had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor) with a short explanatory info blurb tacked on. $ for this seems totally unrealistic.

I personally recommend Tora! Tora! Tora! as being more consistant and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: NG documentary sets the record straight
Review: This National Geographic DVD tells more than just commenting on the recent movie.It sets the record straight.For example,the American volunteers called "The Eagles" that flew against the Luftwaffe in The Battle Of Britain were all civilian volunteers and not military men as portrayed in the Pearl Harbor film.Of these 214 men,109 died going into battle against the Germans.The bombing of Tokyo is also told and film of the planes taking off from the carriers is shown.Interesting to note that the actual two real pilots(not the film's made-up ones)that flew against the Japanese attackers and shot down six of their planes were also not awarded the America's highest military award.Some complain about African American steward Dorry Miller not receiving it but he wasn't the only one.In fact,most of the Medal Of Honor awards at Pearl Harbor were posthumous.The documentary does make use of the film's eccellent special effects and also uses real film and old war movie film as well.It points out at the end that some generic film was used to re-create the battle stories.There are interviews with survivors,navy men and women that were nurses there at the time.One nurse tells of bodies "stacked up like cordwood" at the back of the hospital.The Japanese pilots flew over the mainland at 7.40am and the first bomb was dropped at 7.50am.So the "Pearl Harbor" film's portrayal of kids playing baseball and one woman hanging up the washing as they flew over at that early time looks a little shaky at that fact.But make no mistake,this National Geographic documentary isn't just about that film.It is an eccellent documentary on the attack on Pearl Harbor.This documentary tells a good story and gives the true facts about what happened.The DVD also has some extras such as war documentary films from 1945 and 1963 as well as a National Geographic timeline detailing their history from the early 1900s onwards.