The First World War - The Complete Series [DVD]

This show is, quite simply, the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen. I've always believed the First World War to be the most significant event in human history; nothing in this show has led me to believe otherwise. What it makes clear is how truly unnecessary the First World War was and how easily it could have been halted at almost any stage, if only the opposing sides had seen fit to communicate with one another - or simply to give one another the benefit of the doubt at crucial points. This was especially true of Germany, which based so much of its strategy on what it anticipated would happen eventually; and, of course, in doing so it made these eventualities self-fulfilling prophecies.Besides being a masterful adaption of Professor Hew Strachan's three volume series, the show is superbly organized and presented, in ten parts, to give the viewer maximum exposure to the conditions, personages and events of "The Great War" without the necessity of watching the entire eight hour and twenty-three minute, four disc series in one sitting. Each of the ten parts focuses on one aspect of the War, rather than each picking up where the previous left off; so, in addition to carrying major themes along in the background, each presents a sub-theme devoted primarily to a particular phase of the War. So, even though this requires stepping out of the time line and then back into it, the process is achieved in such a way that the viewer is able to keep each separate aspect in perspective. And while, needless to say, there is enough material related to the First World War to fill a hundred volumes or a hundred hours of video, it is nevertheless quite a feat of editing to have included so much material and to have used it with such great economy and to such good effect. If what you get is primarily an overview, it is an unusually well fleshed-out overview.One other thing the show accomplishes - almost as extraordinary as its presentation of the subject matter - is to highlight the enormous value of historians in the process of understanding human events, great and small. The archival material presented is astounding; but just as astounding is what it says about the great care with which historians preserved and collected as many details as they possibly could. Throughout the series, there are excerpts from letters written by ordinary soldiers to their families and friends back home as well as the much more easily preserved and obtainable writings and speeches of those whose task it was to oversee the War. As a result, the viewer gets a far more complete - and far more unbiased - picture of the actual conditions than he or she would if only the carefully chosen words and phrases of those intentionally writing for history had been presented.To its credit also, as befits the highest uses of history, the show offers neither platitudes nor opinions about the human condition. It simply presents a wealth of accumulated information; and, in so doing, allows the events themselves to speak volumes about the arrogance, stupidity and cruelty of human interaction as well as the nobility and endurance of the human spirit. Not everything shown is unremittingly negative; some things are even light-hearted, as when, on certain portions of the Western Front, the French and British soldiers developed a rapport with the German soldiers - one of the German soldiers even warning when a shell would be fired at their trench; while others are poignant, as when Italian soldiers, unable to withstand the cold of the Alps or the dearth of rations, simply surrendered en masse to the Germans, or when Russian soldiers simply walked away from the Eastern Front, unwilling to fight any longer under impossible conditions. And while there were some overbearing officers, many of the officers, including generals, positioned themselves along the Front with their men - a large number of generals, on all sides, being killed during this "war to end all wars."Of course, it didn't "end all wars"; if anything, it guaranteed a succession of great and small wars. Marshal Foch, the supreme French commander, commented after the War that the terms of the Treaty would lead to yet another war in twenty years. As Jonathan Lewis, the producer and narrator of the show, observed, Foch missed it by only sixty-five days.

I have just spent about a week and a half viewing this series. It probably has more information about WW I than any other single cinematic representation. It was worth the cost, and it deserves five stars. Still I was left a bit wanting (explained below).Its four DVDs are neatly and securely placed in an artistic, colorful pack, including a well-done 32-page color booklet that summarizes each of the ten episodes.Of course no cinema is going to give you the full wealth of interesting WW I information provided by a textual history. On the other hand no textual history will give you this documentary's real look at the people, the places, and the artifacts (buildings, machines, and equipment). Thus the title for my review. As eye-candy, to supplement the black-and-white film, the series provides color film of contemporary sites to compare them with the sites of nearly a century ago. A good idea.How was I left wanting? The battles. Specifically, battle maps with play-by-play depictions. That is, colorful displays of plans and tactics, showing how units were deployed; how they moved, converged, and retreated; and the battle's turning points. For example, Germany receives fair attention for its victory at Tannenberg, but Tannenberg is one of the more interesting battles in history. The series says nothing about why and how this is so. Generally this series gives battles only light coverage, and some major battles are not even mentioned. Though Gallipoli and Amiens receive a good amount of attention, even they are not given detailed battle maps.Edit: After watching this series, I decided to read G. J. Meyer's "A World Undone," a good popular history of the war. As I expected, it has tons of interesting information excluded from this video series. Particularly it has good accounts of at least some of the battles (not ALL of them, of course). To supplement my reading, I have been re-watching the series. Make no mistake! This series is worth watching. For example, Mr. Meyer doesn't say anything about Edith Cavell or Yves Congar. The series tells their stories, adding a very personal touch to the epic of the war.