World War II, Suggestions?
 

Well, I've really been into buying a lot of the interesting documentary-ish kinda things. You know, the Walking With collection, Blue Planet, Ancient Civilizations, The Future Is Wild... but now I'm really trying to decide between this five disc set called 'The Complete History Of World War II' which has about 11 hours worth of material to watch, or one called 'World War II Battlefront' which is a five disc set as well, with 'colorized' footage. Is there anybody who has knowledge on either one of these so I can decide which way to go with my cash?

Moving to Movie Talk Forum.

- David Stein

Here's a few more you might want to consider - I'haven't seen any of these but some do indeed look intriguing:

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v5_sea...ite_id=4&sort=

:up: get this first.

Well, I kind of shrugged off the idea of that one, considering the fact it costs a lot of money but I'm reading reviews on it now at amazon and everybody has been giving it five stars all the way. Absolutely incredible. Somebody says it hardly touches on Pacific campaign though, which is kind of disappointing considering it's such a huge set (11 discs). But, I think I'll save up a couple of weeks and invest into this set, thanks for the recommendations!

Is there a set out there that DOES really get into detail about the Pacific Campaign? It would be great to see a lot of stuff about that whole side of the war as well.

Another vote for getting the World at War set. There is something about Laurence Olivier's voice that makes it sound more impressive.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
The definitive work on the Pacific campaigns.

You guys have been incredibly helpful. I think I'll just save up some money for a while and get both of those sets down the line! Now if somebody could help me out in my other thread about the mob :eyebrow:

Watch the 1990 movie version of Memphis Belle and also watch the 1944 documentary of it on dvd. Another documentary is The Fighting Lady

There's a new 21-volume set that contains 42 hours of WWII documentary stuff. It's called "The Second World War". It's not released till April 12th. Judging by the titles and summaries of the 42 one hour episodes, it seems to take on the view of the British side of the war.

I see this listed as a box set in Region 2, but I'm region 1 and don't see it as a box set on amazon yet, can anybody confirm that for a region 1 release?

WWII Battlefront is supposedly good, I have not seen it though, been considering getting it. Now available in a collector's tin, if you are into that - also can be found in regular box.

History Channel has 2 2-disk sets about Europe and Pacific fronts (War in Pacific and War in Europe), under $15, which could get you the Pacific side. Sometimes it is listed under War Chronicles as part of the title.

Also by History Channel is a whole series of Secrets of War (narrated by Charleston Heston) which includes WW2 espionage, weapons, etc. and also modern day as well - all disks available separately or in group sets, so you can pick the ones you want.

National Geographic Ultimate World War II Collection focus more on Pacific containing 3 disks - The Battle for Midway, Pearl Harbor Legacy of Attack, Untold Stories of WWII. If lucky can find bonus pack that includes Boys of Normandy 60 Years After D-Day (a retrospective with those that were there).

Victory at Sea is a definitive series - a BIG YES, as others have posted, for Pacific since it is essentially footage taken by both the Axis and Allied navies.

If you want something on the homefront, see an unlikely source of Disney -- Disney's collector tin On the Front Lines -- unfortunately it was part of Wave 3, I believe, several waves ago and may be hard to find.

I, too, am interested in World War II and collecting the documentaries as well as some movies and books. I have all the above except for War in Pacific and Battlefront. Most of these I got on sale, like Barnes & Noble 3 for 2, going out of business and such. Could not resist them.

If you want to see the nazi side of things, I would totally recommend Triumph of the Will - Special Edition. Crazy stuff in that movie. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl also makes a good companion to it.

I would also add:
The Sorrow and the Pity. great documentary of the Vichy regime in France.

A new film is being released called "Downfall" about the last 10 days of Hitler as he and some of his closest allies hid in Berlin. The reviews are saying that Hitler is portrayed in "startling human terms."

I've seen a few "World War Two in Colour" documentrys on TV, which were really really cool. The stuff taken from Hitler's camera man was very interesting, and there's a lot of it.

World at War is available at Netflix. If you use it you can get one of the discs to watch before you buy the set.

I saw this movie last week, and it is very good. It does humanize Hitler and his allies, but doesn't necessarily sympathize with them. There are a lot of incredibly tragic events that happen in the bunker, but at no point did I feel sorry for what was happening to Hitler and his generals. The movie almost plays like a reenactment, which seemed to bother some reviewers, but to me, that was really the best way to tell the story and remain objective to the events that took place.

Not a definative collection or anything but Wal-Mart has a WWII 2 disc collection, I think called D-Day that you should pick up. At $5.50 you can't really go wrong.

I've picked it up but haven't looked at it yet.

Not sure if this has always been the price, but I found this set at BB for $16.99.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....uct&id=1394734

Yeah, I really didn't understand the criticism. Though a depraved and horrible one, Hitler was a human, and it's actually a unique perspective.
Excellent, excellent film. I cannot wait for an R1 DVD.