Apocalypse: Second World War

I have at least twenty historical dvds of WWII, and Countless Hollywood movies about WWII. What I believe makes This series and Blu-ray unique is seeing more of a perspective of the civilians during WWII. Many of the historical dvds give the viewer details of the battles, and film and pictures of the battles, but more from a soldiers perspective. I am glad to add this to my collection because I believe it added that civilian perspective. Many people forget that the civilian causaulty rate dwarfed that of the soldiers lost during WWII. The civilians were just as courageous as the soldiers in many instances. Hopefully we will never have to repeat the lessons that so many learned.

I have what is apparently the original version of this series which I ordered through Time-Life. It is in English with a rather bland narrator whose voice I don't recognize. While not obviously inaccurate the narration doesn't go into a lot of detail and repeats many well-worn cliches (i.e. Polish cavalry DID NOT deliberately charge German tanks in September 1939; they simply got surprised in the open by a German armored column). Disc 2, which details the first 6 months of the Pacific War, contains very little new info and I quickly became bored watching it.

Time-Life promotes this series as being spectacular and new. A lot of the footage is indeed new, but I also had seen much of it before on history websites. There are also some curious parts in which the script feels like it was solely written to incorporate available footage.

That said, there is some very interesting footage that I had never seen before. Colorized footage of U.S. battleships burning at Pearl Harbor and Japanese planes apparently ditching in the ocean after their carriers had been sunk at the Battle of Midway was nice. Footage showing executions of Jews and alleged collaborators can also be quite graphic, as can be the scenes of dead bodies.

I would recommend buying this series only for the footage, much of which is definitely worth the price of admission. But if you've been studying World War 2 in detail for any length of time don't expect to learn anything particularly new. If you're new to this subject, know that this is a well-produced series that looks and sounds nice, but just be careful about repeating what you learn from it.

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I bought the 4 dvd set from Time Life and watched it today. While some of the footage was new, much of it was stuff I had seen on the history channel and the victory at sea series. Some of the information was informative like the French invasion of Germany after the declaration of war and the fact that Hitler did not pursue the English troops evacuating at Dunkirk although Stukas did sink some of the evacuation craft. Some of the footage fell short of telling the whole story, like the part about the bombing of Monte Cassino in Italy. Much of the new footage focused on the eastern front. While the development of the Soviet air force played a large part in the battle, it was overlooked in this dvd. The pacific war footage showed the battle for Saipan and said that it was the place where B-29s took off to attack Japan, and they covered the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, although those attacks were launched from Tinian and not Saipan. This package wasn't worth it.

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The DVD available is not like the series shown on T.V. The audio has been altered with the original narrater being replaced with a someone who is very monotone. It really changes the presentation of the show in a negative way.

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First thing I must point out about this series, is don't expect this to be the most comprehensive in terms of technical details, this is more of a broader overview of the conflict. The aspect that makes this series fantastic is the footage..it is some of the best, if not THE best I've ever seen. Especially German military footage, I don't think I've ever seen another documentary on the second world war with better footage of the Wehrmacht. A lot of the footage in Apocalypse you won't find in any other series, or if you do it will most likely be in black and white and not remastered in HD. This is a more cinematic presentation of the war, with no interviews to break up the continuity. The sound is also a great selling point for Apocalypse, because it's in 5.1 surround. If you have even the slightest interest in WW2, pick up this one. If you want a more detailed synapsis on the conflict I would suggest picking up the classic 'The World at War'.

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