There are two problems with the DVD boxset: it's a very poor picture transfer and doesn't have subtitles. The latter is not really on these days. I particularly noticed it since one of my best A-Level students this year is profoundly deaf. In connection with this, potential purchasers should be aware that old TV programmes released on DVD by Acorn Media never seem to have subtitles.
Just watching this series through and taking in some of the statistics. Can't believe that on May 8th, the end of the first series ended in Britain. 40 year anniversary. Hard to accept it is 40 years old. A magnificent series.
Still the best WW2 Docuseries Ever Made Pretty good deal that came across my Google Keyword alerts. I have a copy myself and have been marathoning it around the holidays for years now. This is a pretty good deal considering I paid around $50 more when I bought it in '07.. World at War - 26 Episode Series Collection (DVD, 2001, 5-Disc Set)
Welcome and agree completely, If you can discern that you will probably enjoy sticking around on the forum .
Maybe so. Just sharing from my perspective since I got it for $280. Can't seem to find anything cheaper online either. No problem though.
I was even more fortunate, Dad had a set on his bookcase when I was dusting the other day. I purloined that rather swiftly.
There's an episode daily on the Yesterday channel on Freeview in the UK (Yesterday will be back tomorrow)
Yes, some of it may be outdated by more recent scholarship, but as history I think most of it still stands up. I saw it when I was a kid-teen, and it left an indelible impression on me. I was reading the Ballentine-Purnell paperback history series at the same time, and together they gave me a far more somber and mature view of the war than I had before. The interviews in World at War were priceless; how many times are you going to be able to listen to and see people like Adolf Galland, Albert Speer, Walter Warlimont, Traudl Junge, Bomber Harris, Pug Ismay, Lightning Joe Collins, Mountbatten, Brian Horrocks, Andre Beaufre, and even Monty himself? Olivier's narration was in my opinion one of the greatest narrations ever and one of the best things he ever did, which is to say it ranks with his Hamlet and Archie Rice. Simply a great series.
Have to agree with TTH. The episodes which resonate with me are the ones which bring in the civilian point of view and interview non-combatants. Two that stand out are one about the Blitz in London and other cities and the one that concentrates on Japan and its psychological build up to war.
When I watch I still remember the normal people on the prog who just got on with it In the sixties life was full of men and woman who came from poor backgrounds who when called to do a job just got on with it in WW2. I like the smartness of the dress suit and tie in the interviews and their recollection. Priceless history The end music seemed to state doom in the next chapter Even the final prog you realised a new world beginning but still as unstable as the one just ended As TTH states a great series
Like so many here, I watched the series when it first aired, I would have been 12 going on 13. Even now, so many decades later, I still tune in when it is shown again and I never fail to be gripped and moved from start to finish. I am not ashamed to say the tears were once again rolling down the old cheeks as the camera panned across the headstones at the end of the recent Desert episode the other afternoon. Much as they trickled down my rather more youthful cheeks all those years ago. As TTH says, where else will you ever see and hear all those people, those names from history? I still find Traudl Junge’s story and the way she tells it, fascinating. The music, the opening images, everything about this absolute classic, are as haunting and compelling today as they were back then to a wide-eyed young lad.
Glancing at this thread, it would appear to be over a decade since I last watched it. Might be overdue another showing. "Down this road, on a summer day in 1944, the soldiers came..."
