Product Description

Using a collection of previously broadcast documentaries, explores the life and career of Sir Winston Churchill.
Genre: BIOGRAPHY
Rating: NR
Release Date: 26-AUG-2003
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11801 in DVD
• Brand: A&E
• Released on: 2003-08-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 300 minutes

From the Back Cover
He was an uninspired student who won the Nobel Prize for literature. He failed military school examinations twice--and then became Lord of the Admiralty. A disastrous decision during World War I threatened to ruin his political career, yet he was named Prime Minister of Britain in 1940. The three programs in this multi-faceted collection explore Winston Churchill's extraordinary life and monumental legacy. Written and hosted by his official biographer, Martin Gilbert, The Complete Churchill is the landmark profile from A&E's acclaimed BIOGRAPHY series. Churchill and the Cabinet War Rooms recreates the secret meetings where he orchestrated British strategy during World War II. And FDR: The War Years offers an intimate glimpse of Churchill's relationship with his most important ally. THE HISTORY CHANNEL PRESENTS: WINSTON CHURCHILL is the ultimate portrait of the 20th century's greatest statesman. DVD Features: Quotations; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

Customer Reviews

The definitive DVD biography on Winston Churchill.
If you're looking for a DVD on and about Sir Winston Churchill this is definitely the one to get. Presented and narrated by Sir Winston's official biographer Martin Gilbert, he takes the viewer through the course of the subject's life and to some of the locations of note in Sir Winston's life. He takes the viewer through the high and low points of his life as well as some of his formative years. Interlaced in this presentation are interviews with those that have actually known him as well as his daughter and his grandson namesake. A must have.

Churchill's Enduring Magnetism in a Disoriented World
Winston Churchill, a two-DVD set from The History Channel, will delight both connoisseurs and neophytes. Archival footage, interviews with people who knew Churchill and, last but not least, narrative by Winston's official biographer Martin Gilbert make this series stand out among the visual productions dedicated to Churchill. Gilbert makes Churchill accessible to a wide audience by keeping his narrative both erudite and lighthearted.

In Volume I, Gilbert opts for a chronological approach to his subject. Describing Churchill, however, is tricky. First, Churchill, either in turn or concomitantly, was a journalist, historian, soldier, painter, and statesman. Furthermore, as one of his early conquests noted in 1905, "The first time you meet Winston, you see all his faults, and the rest of your life you spend in discovering his virtues." Churchill embodied over time vision and foresight, humanity and sense of fair play, democracy and patriotism, formidable powers of work and thought, as well as controversy, disappointment and abuse.

To his credit, Gilbert clearly narrates the ups and downs in his tumultuous career. Many people, who are unfamiliar with Churchill's biography, can be forgiven for ignoring the many setbacks that Churchill experienced in his early career before finally becoming the iconic figure for which he is generally known today. Sometimes, Churchill was his worst enemy because of his own excesses.

In Volume II, James Faulkner focuses on the workings of the war room from where Churchill led the war against the Axis powers. John Daly then covers the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt and the special relationship that Roosevelt developed with Churchill during WWII. Volume I will probably enthrall more than Volume II because of the stature of its narrator.

To summarize, Winston Churchill ranks among the best productions ever made for a broad audience.

The most authenticated DVD biography on Winston Churchill
I am a fanatic Winston Churchill enthusiast.

I find, that Sir Martin Gilbert,the most authoritative person still alive, with many (official) written biographies that he has authored on Winston Churchill, along with the last (and no longer living) son of Winston Churchill, who benefacted Sir Gilbert and also authorized Sir Martin Gilbert, to become the official biographer of Winston Churchill.

Since I had previously bought "Biography of His Life and Speeches" DVD, (among many other such dvd's,) I have recently also bought this (two disk)"Winston Churchill (2000)" DVD that Sir Martin Gilbert supervised and narrates.

After collecting a vast amount of documentations, books,DVD's, as well a vast amount of memorabillia, pertaining to and about Winston Churchill. As far as all the DVD's regarding Winston Churchill that I own, I consider THIS "Winston Churchill (2000)" DVD the most authoritative (warts and all)and being the most informative (DVD) biography on the life of Winston Churchill.

If you truly are interested in the history of WWII and the part that Winston Churchill played and was actually was responsible of the victory of WWII, then THIS ("Winston Churchill (2000)" DVD is THE ultimate essential DVD.

J. Levin