| 
| Directors: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick
Studio: PBS
Category: DVD
List Price: $129.99
Buy New: $32.94
You Save: $97.05 (75%)
New (66) Used (22) Collectible (1) from $29.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  288 reviews
Sales Rank: 325
Format: Anamorphic, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 6
Running Time: 900
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.9 x 1.3
MPN: PARD705212D
UPC: 841887052122
EAN: 0841887052122
ASIN: B000R7NBMK
Theatrical Release Date: October 2, 2007
Release Date: October 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: NEW AND SEALED!!!!!!!!FAST SHIPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Well done! September 19, 2008
This is one of the best documentaries on the WWII. I love it. It's not like usual crap done by Hollyweird. It's stripped off the hollyweirdish heroics and thats why this film is great. It's real and sticks well. I can't get enough of it. Good job!
Excellent Replacement September 17, 2008
The original product content was good, however disc #5 was defective in a couple chapters. Amazon quickly issued me return postage stickers and sent replacement box set, which has no defects. Very pleased with final outcome!
Tells A Great Story August 28, 2008
This is a must see film by Ken Burns. Showing both the war overseas and what effect it had on families & cities back in the U.S at the time, makes this an outstanding film. 5 Stars +
And Thank You to the men and women that fought this war both away and here at home.
 Fairly good for PBS August 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a fair series and a good introduction to WWII for a high school class. For any real or part time historian it's fair. This reviewer has come to expect major bias in any PBS series and the fairly even treatment the USA receives from Ken Burns is a nice break from the relentless media "this nation is evil" coverage.
Burns does a good job of showing the USA's build up to the war. He does leave out the fact that the US Navy was the equal of the British Navy. But Burns does show the fact that the US Army was ill prepaired for WWII. Also, Burns shows the first major battle of the US Army at Kasserine Pass in early 1943. The Germans wrecked the better part of a corps of the US Army and knocked it back over 50 miles. While the Soviets had beat Germany at Moscow and Stalingrad in 1941 and 1942 the US Army didn't even get in its first fight with Germany until 1943. That should be a shock to the viewers.
Now, the series is given as sort of a martix to viewers. Every disk covers a set period of time: 1941, 1942, 1943, and ect. Then there are chapters in every time frame. A viewer will see the home front, racial problems, the internment of Japanese Americans, the dreadful prison conditions Japan put both our citizens and soldiers to endure, the fighting by the army, and the actions by the US Navy. What drove this reviewer nuts was the conditions in the Japanese and German death camps was put side by side next to the conditions of the Japanese American camps. Yes, it's too bad that the Japanese Americans were jailed. However, to show it as equal as the German or Japanese death camps is bias on a plate.
Burns ignores lots of action by the US Navy. He ignores Java Sea, Savo Island, Coral Sea, and Bismarck Sea. He spends lots of time on Midway. But if two Japanese carriers had not had their aircrews destroyed at Coral Sea then the US would have been looking at six carriers at Midway, not just four. Bismarck Sea wrecks the last offensive action of the Japanese Navy.
Burns also kind of ignores the U-boat war. So, between giving a light treatment of Naval actions in the Pacific and basically ignoring the U-boat war it costs a star.
Burns spends a lot of time with racial and riots in the USA. While the Soviet Union was wrecking the Nazi Wehrmacht at Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk there were race riots in Georgia and Detroit. Burns shows the war through four cities in four seperate states. Honestly, it may not be a good representation. Alabama is in the deep South but Mobile Bay is not representative of the area. California's City of Sacramento may not be a typical California city. You get an impression of a weird sort of view that isn't quite like all of America.
Burns does not properly show that this war was America's production war. America made over 10 battleships (400,000 tons), 200 destroyers (400,000 tons), thousands of heavy bombers, tens of thousands of fighters, over 35,000 Sherman tanks, over 1 million heavy machine guns, and the rest of the materials needed for war.
Now, in the much better video series on WWII is "World at War", produced by the BBC in the early 1970s. It does a much better job of showing the allies in the fight and - weirdly - does a better job of showing the USA getting ready, fighting, and producing for the war.
Another annoying thing is the reading of letters by various actors, such as the over rated Tom Hanks. It detracts from the message and the time would have been better showing the weapons systems or the internal problems of the US Army.
Burns does spend a lot of time on the subject of the Strategic bomber offensive against Germany. Now, it is something worth noting that the United States Army Air Force lost more airmen in 1943 fighting against Germany than the US Army lost in soldiers at the debacle at Tunisia Pass. The video series "World at War" tells the view by doing interviews with the Germans that Nazi Germany had to expend an Army of soldiers and airmen to protect the Reich against air attacks. Burns does not get that point across to his view; the allies in 1943 had a defacto second front against the Germans which is exactly what Stalin wanted.
But the part where Ken Burns makes up for all of the sins was in the fall of Japan. I expected bias to be served in large amounts. Instead it was quite good. The B-29 bombing of Japan was shown as it was intended; it's a way of beating Japan. The atomic bombs are just a weapon system that induce Japan to surrender. Burns shows what the people of that era in the USA showed of the atomic bombing of Japan; they loved it. It ended the war. It stopped the killing of Americans.
So, I would endorse this video for a quick and fast way of learning about a war that determines America's destiny in the last sixty years of the 20th Century. The viewer is given an over view of race relations, the fighting, the results, and conditions at home.
It's not bad and earns an honest three stars.
Must have August 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
You absolutely must see this. And then make your children see it. Enough said.
|
|
|
