Product Description

America's island-hopping campaign culminated in two dreadful Pacific battles. At Iwo Jima, which the Marines invaded in early 1945, nearly 7,000 G.I.s gave their lives to secure victory. Just a few months later, nearly 12,000 perished at Okinawa. Yet the cost for the Japanese was total: an entire army of over 120,000 men was wiped out, and with the loss of these critical islands, the Japanese homeland lay open to invasion by the Allies.

Featured on this DVD are four period films, three of them in full color, shot during these epic battles. Watch as American ships bombard Iwo Jima, and Marines raise the flag atop Mount Suribachi. See combat footage as the 6th Marine Division, supported by carrier-based aircraft and flame-throwing tanks, mounts a ruthless campaign against desperate enemy forces. See how courage, determination, and sacrifice paved the way to victory in the Pacific.

Digitally remasted and restored from original 16mm prints, the films featured on this DVD were originally made for the U.S. armed forces and the public. Please note: because of the age and rarity of these films, image and sound quality may vary.

Color and black and white films. Running time: over 110 minutes!

Presented in the DVD-R format. May not be compatible with older DVD players.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120469 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-08-21
• Format: NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

From the Actor
This is one in a series of historic documentary and training films DVDs. They include the "Submarines" series, "Warships" series, "Aircraft" and "Battles" series. All of these products are or soon will be available through Amazon.com

About the Actor
This is one in a series of WWII battle DVDs from Periscope Film. Other films in the series are or will soon be available on Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Amazing Set of Films Shows it Like it Really Was!
If you've seen "Flags of Our Fathers", you've seen Hollywood's take on the epic battle at Iwo Jima. Now, with this DVD, you can see how it really was... On this DVD are several amazing movies shot during combat on Okinawa and Iwo in the closing months of World War II. They are simply jaw-dropping! Included as a bonus on the DVD is silent footage that I'd never seen before, showing the preparations towards raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, and immediately afterwards as the troops pose for a group photo. Incredible. What's even more thrilling is that this is all in color, and it's not some lame tinted job but real Kodachrome footage. That alone is worth the price of admission. But there's other films on here of note, including a film about the epic struggle to take Iwo Jima that has got to be one of the most sobering documentaries to come out of the war. When you see how brave our troops were, and how difficult and fierce the struggle, it just makes you weep with gratitude for these people. Our country owes them everything we have today.

Interesting footage
The DVD containst interesting footage of the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. However it is just standard government film shorts and or training films. Not much was done in the way of post processing of the footage. They look like they were burned directly from the old 16 mm films with no attempt to enhance them which is a shame since the technology is readily available and inexpensive.
One clip was colorized, and was pretty poorly done. Colors were bleeding all over the place on the images.

There was one clip that was pretty interesting. It was raw footage, almost like home movies of some GIs relaxing behind the lines.

All in all, I would not purchase this if I had to do it over again. It was not worth the money.

If you are a war footage junkie, set your recorder to the History Channel and record it from there.