This review is the first of a series of “capsule reviews” of whatever I feel like commenting on. In this, the first instalment, I will be reviewing the Time Life World At War DVD series.
My review is summarized by a rating out of five Patsies, the worst being half a Patsy, the best being five Patsies:
The internationally recognized, SAE approved Patsy scale
My rating is entirely subjective and not based on any particular criteria; it’s just whatever the hell I feel like giving.
So enjoy, turkeys.
I.A.
---
If you watch any history channels, you may have come across an advertisement from Time Life for a DVD collection featuring rare footage from the Second World War. It touts how this footage is grisly, graphic and unique, and portrays the DVD set as a sort of compendium of stock footage.
This is severely underselling The World At War series, a 1970s British documentary series that followed the events of the Second World War using new footage, eyewitness accounts, and a sombre historical narrative provided by Sir Laurence Olivier. I find it odd (actually, disturbing) that Time Life sells the set as a sort of voyeuristic compendium of graphic footage for history nuts, rather than as the solid and acclaimed documentary series it is.
Clocking in at almost 30 hours, including the “bonus” materials (a few extra documentary episodes that recycle some of the testimony and expand upon in - particularly the interview with Hitler’s personal secretary, and a standalone two-part overview of the Final Solution), this series is a massive undertaking for the average viewer. Thankfully, it is very well presented. The events are distilled to their historical essence, in easy-to-digest 1 hour episodes. There is no high-falutin’ historical theory here – this is the straight, “popular” history of the Second World War, and that’s not a bad thing. It makes the series accessible to most anyone, and it provides a refreshingly simple refresher course in the war for us historians who have spent years poring over dry academic articles. Indeed, the talking-head portions are devoted to eyewitnesses, civilians, and combatants – not historians who never had a bomb fall on their house, or see their buddies get disembowelled by a machine gun. This is a strong point in my eyes; I’m quite tired of having a third party mediate history, and I quite enjoy being able to listen to the testimony of ordinary people who were involved, however flawed their views may be (more on that in a bit).
The selling point, unique footage, is certainly present. Much use is made of film from the war, completely overshadowing the odd talking head moments (thank God, because nothing kills the flow of a documentary like five minutes of staring at someone’s face). There is a plethora of colour footage here, and a lot of film you won’t see anywhere else. Sometimes it is graphic and stomach turning; colour footage of dismembered corpses lying on a battlefield, or the sight of a doctor sawing off a soldier’s leg in a field hospital, these are not sights for the faint of heart. Even seasoned film viewers like myself get a little queasy, because these are real people with real injuries, not actors with special effects.
The focus is clearly on the British and American side of the war, with the bulk of the series focussing on the European theatre. This is the main flaw of the series; the Pacific front is given a few episodes but it feels like it has been tacked on, and there are even some jarring racial stereotypes that belittle the Japanese as a people (remember this was made in the 1970s). Nothing is made of the contributions of Canadians, or the exiled armies of the conquered territories, or Australia, or… Well, you get the idea. Thankfully Germany is well represented, for good or ill, so it is not an entirely one-sided presentation.
The most disturbing moments sometimes come from the interviewees. One in particular stands out; Major Otto Ernst Remer (now infamous as the man who tried to carry out Operation Valkyrie arrests only to be stopped by Goebbels when he was put on the phone with a not-at-all-dead Hitler) is interviewed in several episodes. A curt and curmudgeonly old man, surrounded by relics of his service in the war, Remer vehemently denies the Holocaust on camera and generally upholds the stereotype of a German following orders without question and without remorse. It’s a sobering moment, and the series is full of them - like when a Berlin woman states, in emotionless fashion and without warning, that she was raped by a Russian soldier. Or when a victim of a cull recounts how she was shot and left for dead in a pile of bodies. These are the testimonies that make the series truly fascinating, in giving the all-important human element to the proceedings.
At around 40$ for the full set, including bonus features (which aren’t really that noteworthy, as they often recycle things from the main series), The World At War DVD set comes highly recommended. Flaws and all, it’s an excellent series that should be examined by everyone – whether you are a history buff or not. It’s an excellent summary of the war and does an admirable job of presenting the human elements.
I give it four Patsies, with reservations – namely the Europe-heavy focus and the recycled bonus features. Not to mention the tasteless way Time Life markets the series.
