Product Description

Strong feelings of nationalism throughout Europe prior to the war created an atmosphere where war was imminent. The spark that finally ignited the flame was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914. Within two months France, Russia, Germany and Great Britain were entrenched in what would become five years of conflict, resulting in massive carnage and the deaths of millions. This illuminating 4 DVD set examines the conflict year by year, highlighting significant turning points in the war until its end in 1918.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69215 in DVD
• Brand: Koch International
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .70 pounds
• Running time: 377 minutes

Amazon.com
While World War II has practically monopolized the TV channels dedicated to military history, the drama and tragedy of World War I has been often overlooked, given scant attention, or viewed only in relation to World War II as a cause. The Great War: The Complete History of World War I makes a contribution to remedy that by taking an in-depth, year-by-year look at the war to end all wars. Five programs delve into what happened each year the war played out, and another program examines the developments in land warfare, sea, and air power technology. The amount of original footage presented here is impressive, most of it cleaned up and restored as much as is possible, give the aged condition of the film. However, much of the narrative structure seems disjointed and unmatched to the footage, and the sound effects are somewhat puzzling and amateurish. A line of soldiers firing rifles is accompanied with the sound of a machine gun, while a massive howitzer shoots off in silence. Some of the visuals leave a lot to be desired as well, as an overview of battles in Eastern France presents explosions on a topographical map, but with no lines of battle drawn or movements displayed it’s impossible to get a sense of the armies’ relative positions to each other. Patrick Boniface’s narration strikes the appropriate tone, but the reality is that having only one narrator to cover the scope of the program gets a little monotonous. The resulting experience is a little like sitting in a history lecture: it’s very informative, and the images are interesting to take in, but it remains distant and academic. As a result many viewers are unlikely to be drawn in any emotional way and may find the end result disappointing. It might be best to approach this one in a purely educational sense; you will certainly learn a lot about the particulars of the war, but it probably won't engage you much beyond that. --Daniel Vancini

Customer Reviews

Disappointing series... Doesn't live up to its title at all
This was a very disappointing series. It claims to be a complete history of WWI but it comes nowhere close. It seems to be put together solely for the purpose of showcasing archive footage from the war. The accompanying narrative is almost an afterthought. Little effort has gone into writing a narrative with any intent to inform, much less educate the casual viewer. It is split into 8 episodes, the first 5 chronicling one year of the war each, followed by 3 episodes dedicated to the technological aspects of the war; namely the air war, the sea war and the land war.

After the first episode, "1914," which chronicles the start of the war, I was tempted to quit and give it a 1 star rating like the other reviewers here but fortunately it does improve over time, if only minimally. The entire series is made up of archival footage. There are no interviews with historians, experts or specialists. History is presented in the most banal way possible. If one could point to one way not to teach history, this would be it. History is not a recitation of names, dates and numbers. The "world war" shown here is confined solely to the European theatre and almost exclusively to the western front, possibly due to the lack of footage from elsewhere. There is absolutely no mention of the war in Africa, the Middle East or Asia aside from the Dardanelle's Campaign against the Ottoman Turks. And exactly why was the Dardanelle's Campaign fought at such great cost? The answer was to secure passage to the Black Sea and to open a second front in aid of the beleagured Russians but even that was not made clear. Instead we are inundated with numbers and lists as if we were cramming for some history test at the end - Regiment numbers, manpower numbers, detailed casualty lists, numbers ad nauseam.

We are given almost no idea about the reasons for the lead-up to the war other than the fact that Serbian "nationalist" Gavrilo Princip, assasinated the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, triggering the network of pre-war treaties that culminated in war. Almost any schoolboy can tell you that. We are given the flip comment that the war could have been so "easily avoided." How? The first episode is the worst because of the see-sawing, almost static nature of the war and the need to fill up the silences between the footage of trench warfare. The first episode also highlights one of the major faults of this series, its failure to use proper maps to illustrate military movements. To paraphrase the old cliche, a map is worth a thousand words. To describe a single battle you'd need hundreds of words if not thousands. The same battle can be elegantly depicted on a single simple map. In the Battle of the Frontiers (1914), the script laboriously describes military movements at great length to little effect. Far from being enlightened, the viewer is left totally bewildered.

The narration can get so involved as to leave even the most seasoned viewer floundering.
I quote verbatim from part of the first episode:
"Joffre the French Commander in Chief was determined to win the war quickly. The offensive was supposed to be launched across the entire line from Nieuwport in Belgium to Verdun, thoughout the Artois and Champagne regions. In the event, the winter offensive was primarily directed against the German salient at Sambre which bulged into central France and a smaller salient that existed further south at St. Mihiel. Joffre's plan was to attack the German's 3rd Army with a numerically superior force at the Sambre salient at its northern and southern edges. A further attack in the Ardennes was to be launched to cut off the German's line of retreat."

All fine on paper and with recourse to a map but can anyone honestly say that they can form a mental image of how the battle is being fought when this is rattled off by the narrator all within half a minute without a single useful map to show where all the places and forces are. A useful map is one with place-names and proper lines of movements for military forces, not a blank map with huge arrows covering half the continent and silly looking CGI explosions going off all over the place. I am no expert on the First World War. In the end I had to resort to taking down a book on the war and flipping to the battle maps to understand what the narrator was getting at. I ended up re-reading the book. Which was a lot more satisfying than watching this documentary.

Although it does use a lot of archive footage, the length of the series means that a lot of the footage is used repeatedly, some over half a dozen times. I especially remember the face of the German soldier who throws the same grenade from the first battle of the war to the last or the other poor German soldier who keeps getting shot in the chest repeatedly throughout the series.

Some care should also have been taken in proofing or final editing. In the final episode, mention is made of Kaiser Wilhelm II being the nephew of Britain's King George VII. The Kaiser was the nephew of Edward VII. There was no George VII. The last King George was George VI, the father of the present Queen.

All in all, not recommended. This documentary series is made by some company called "Green Umbrella Sports and Leisure." That in itself should have been a warning flag to stay away. If you must get a TV documentary on the First World War, Jonathan Lewis' "The First World War - The Complete Series" would be a good start.

Great Nothing
If one's knowledge is limited on the subject of W.W.I & you wish it to remain that way, this " set " is for you.
A previous reviewer stated, " one of the worst." He is right on.

Inferior version
The footage is interesting but the narration is so cursory and disjointed that it doesn't offer proper context for the photographs. The maps and discussion of military dispositions are extremely inadequate. This is one of the worst documentaries I have ever encountered. If you have any knowledge at all of history, this will be a major disappointment.