WWII video recommendations (1 Viewer)

Alexdakar

Alexdakar

Command Sergeant Major
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Apr 22, 2005
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I like watching the History Channel WWII documentaries. Is there any good video or DVD WWII documentaries that I can watch when I want to instead of trying to record it.
 
I was gonna say "Where Eagles Dare" than i realised you were talking about documentaries! :)
 
Man, I love that book and the movie with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. Allister MacClean books and movies are among my favorites, especially the Guns of Navarone.
 
Yeah it's just about my favourite WW2 movie. Clint and Richard Burton are on top form gunning down Nazis by the truckload, and throwing them off cable cars.
I haven't read the book. Is it quite similar to the film?


Oops we're going to hijack this thread. We should have a favourite war movie thread next.
 
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The book is even better than the movie, as is the book the Guns of Naverone. In the Guns of Naverone book the character of Dusty Miller is a tough grizzled American miner, not the whiny but lovable upperclass brit David Niven played in the movie.
 
I cannot recommend the BBC World War II 10 DVD set too highly. Since I'm being called for dinner, I will try to list the contents later.
 
I recently saw the series World at War was out on DVD do you remember it from the 70's and as I recall it was a good series with a lot of interesting information supported by the documentary/news reel films. If you take a look in the Military History Magazine there is always a big section with fims and documentaries.

Dave
 
The BBC D-Day 6.6.44 anniversary documentary is excellent. It has some great reconstructions, especially the British paratrooper assault on the Merville battery.

Hiroshima. Also from the BBC and really quite horrific but a definite must see.

One last BBC documentary. The Nazis: A warning from history.
 
Alexdakar said:
I like watching the History Channel WWII documentaries. Is there any good video or DVD WWII documentaries that I can watch when I want to instead of trying to record it.
Click to expand...

First, is there anything in particular that you want? Most of the History Channel's programs are advertised as available on DVD, but that would get quite expensive! Personally, I have bought a couple DVDs of stuff that I particularly enjoyed, or thought would be useful for reference. Being a Sherman tank nut I bought the "Suicide Missions" episode on the Sherman. I don't agree with some of their research but there is GREAT video of the tanks in training and in action. George Steven's "D-Day to Berlin" is another goodie with lots of US stuff filmed in color by a Hollywood director working with the Army. Ton's of DVDs are available on almost any subject.

Gary
 
There was a series that appears from time to time called "Battlefield". This is an excellent account of the major battles of WWII including analysis of the commanders and equipment. Also, on the historical fiction side, a recent DVD called "Downfall" regarding Hitler's last days in the bunker.
 
The Warning from History, which is two DVDs is one of the best things I've ever seen. It's worth the price of the whole set. I haven't seen the DDay one yet but when I was in England in 2004 I picked up the companion book at the IWM and have been dying to get the DVD but since it won't work in my machine, I assumed I would never get it. I'm watching the Dunkirk one now and it's very good.
 
Combat said:
There was a series that appears from time to time called "Battlefield". This is an excellent account of the major battles of WWII including analysis of the commanders and equipment. Also, on the historical fiction side, a recent DVD called "Downfall" regarding Hitler's last days in the bunker.
Click to expand...


Battlefield is one of my favorites, too. Does anyone know if you can get the series on DVD? What ever did I watch before the History, History Int'l, and the Military channel?
 
One of my early favourites was "The Secret War" which was a terrific TV Series produced in the UK by the BBC and aired in the late 1970's. It documented the behind the scenes work of boffins like R.V. Jones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Victor_Jones
and much of the material is from Jones's book "Most Secret War".

I believe it has since been reissued on video but copies are hard to find, perhaps it's not so popular these days as most of the footage is in black and white.
 
ucla1967 said:
Battlefield is one of my favorites, too. Does anyone know if you can get the series on DVD? What ever did I watch before the History, History Int'l, and the Military channel?
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I've got Battlefield Alamein but the problem is they're not made for this country. So you would need a multicountry player or one that played Region 0. For some reason, it will play on my computer but not a regular DVD player so there's the rub.
 
I believe that one of the best sets of dvd or videos is the 1950's series Victory at Sea. Its focus is on the naval battles of the pacific during WWII but it does have some great stuff about the marines in the pacific. It only uses actual combant footage and is well produced so that each volumn of the series relates to its order. Take a look at this description from the Museum of TV http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/V/htmlV/victoryatse/victoryatse.htm
Michael
 
I narrow it down to these two DVD collections. Which one would you pick?

World at War - 26 Episode Series Collection (2004, DVD) 11 DVDs
Narrator...SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER

BBC History of World War II (2005, DVD) 12 DVDs
 
Alexdakar said:
I narrow it down to these two DVD collections. Which one would you pick?

World at War - 26 Episode Series Collection (2004, DVD) 11 DVDs
Narrator...SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER

BBC History of World War II (2005, DVD) 12 DVDs
Click to expand...


I have the World at War, but in VHS. It is a great series. I am not sure which BBC series this is, but I must have seen it since I have been watching these sort of programs for years.
 
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