Battlefield Britain (2004) (NTSC) |
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Battlefield Britain (2004) (NTSC) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Documentary |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-War Walks:Bosworth-1485 Biographies-Cast-Presenters Peter Snow And Dan Snow |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2004 | ||
| Running Time | 468:34 (Case: 497) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3) |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Mary Cranitch |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Peter Snow Dan Snow |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual | ||
| RPI | $49.95 | Music |
Sheridan Tongue David Fairhead Lucy Bevan |
| Video (NTSC) | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.75:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 480i (NTSC) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.75:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
From the Roman occupation through to the Battle of Britain, few other countries can boast such colourful histories over the last 2000 years as Britain. Father and son team Peter Snow and Dan Snow tell the story of a different major battle that has shaped the course of British history during those years in each of the 8 episodes of Battlefield Britain. Employing a combination of live battle re-enactment, computer graphics, actors improvising as foot soldiers of the day and attempts to demonstrate aspects of the battles with modern equipment, Peter and Dan cover the history leading up to each battle and almost every aspect imaginable of the battles themselves.
In many ways, Battlefield Britain is the Mythbusters of British history. It is very accessible and takes a fresh approach to presenting its material, but it never dumbs down what it has to present. Gone are the awkward professors and laughable re-enactments that many people would associate with history programmes. Peter Snow comes from a long history of current affairs broadcasting. Dan Snow is a noted historian. Together they lift the history documentary genre from classroom filler to top quality entertainment.
Peter and Dan enlist a wide variety of assistants to help them demonstrate live battle tactics. Police riot squads build shield walls with modern riot gear, cavalry charges on motorcycles and archery clubs test rates of fire. These sections do a great job of relating the conditions and challenges of the battles to a modern audience.
Computer graphics are used to great effect in the show. Taking cues from the massive battle effects of movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, computer effects are used to provide fly-overs of battles in progress and illustrate the tactics employed in each battle. Everywhere he goes, Peter Snow carries his "magic briefcase" that shows the battle in progress when he opens it up and points out the goings on (almost like a weatherman pointing out wind flows!).
Actors improvise as combatants of the day discussing how they were affected by the different aspects of the battles, the leaders, the weapons, and the layman's political issues. This aspect could have easily gone awry, but the actors and editors have done an excellent job of using this aspect of the show to build the tension in each episode to climax at pivotal points of the battles.
The specific episodes are:
The series starts with Boudicca's failed revolt against the Romans nearly 2000 years ago. This episode contains a number of attempts to recreate battle tactics of the day, including how the Roman wedge formation (used to break solid Barbarian battle lines) was adopted into a (now banned) rugby union tactic and the complexities of fighting on a battle chariot.
This episode covers a lot of the background to the Battle of Hastings, including the Barbarian invasion that immediately preceded the Norman invasion that lead to the fall of Harold and the Anglo-Saxon rule (not to mention one of the most notorious battle climaxes in history).
This episode covers Owen Glendower's Welsh invasion of England. After being proclaimed the Prince of Wales by his followers, largely as an insult to England's crown prince, Glendower led what could be described as a guerrilla campaign against the English. In the process he captured Wales with a fraction of the forces sent to stop him, only to lose it all when he tried to extend into England via more conventional tactics.
The Spanish armada was the largest battle fleet ever assembled up to its day, and for some time afterwards. It was a fleet assembled for what was largely billed by Spain, the world super-power of the day, as a religious crusade against Protestant England. The English had about half as many ships and far fewer guns, but held off the armada with superior tactics and mobility. Teams of single man sailboats are used in this episode to demonstrate many of the tactics employed by both sides in this great naval battle.
Naseby was the key battle in the English civil war. This episode follows the political background to the English civil war, through to the formation of the New Model Army, ultimately leading to the battle of Naseby. Peter and Dan get some great demos in this one including attempting cavalry charges on a motorbike!
Still a controversial battle to this day, with religious tempers frequently flaring during the annual Orange Order march in Ireland, the Battle of the Boyne is notable for its political ramifications as well as its tactics. This episode covers the bulk of the Williamite war in Ireland. From the ousting of the Catholic King James VII of Scotland and II of England by his protestant son-in-law William III of Orange, the siege of Derry and the battle of the Boyne - a major battle that took place across the banks of the River Boyne.
A look at Bonnie Prince Charlie's attempt to seize control of Britain by rallying the Highland clans of Scotland and marching them south. This civil war culminated at the Battle of Culloden, the last land battle on British soil. This episode features a great, smoky demonstration where Peter and Dan try to learn how to fire muskets at the rate expected of the British army of the day without much success!
The final episode examines the last great battle over Britain, the Battle of Britain. This episode trades in re-enactments, as used in the other episodes, for film reel footage from the period. Most of the episode concentrates on the tactics and technology employed by both the Luftwaffe and the Allied air force during the months long battle. Dan experiences the physical pressures of combat flight in a Hurricane put on the human body by flying as a passenger in a re-created plane.
The NTSC video is mostly presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio that is 16x9 enhanced. The first episode is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. The aspect ratio is true to the original source. Why the video is not PAL, as the original UK source would have been (and is standard in Australia), is a very good question. This is most likely a case of the DVD master being cheaply obtained from the US Region 1 release, but is very poor form nonetheless.
The video is soft throughout. This is not helped by the NTSC transfer or interlacing artefacts visible throughout. The sharpness and grain level of the video varies throughout the series and in some cases considerably between scenes. Location scenes tend not to be as sharp as set scenes with actors, but the set scenes are considerably grainier than the location scenes. The CGI also tend to look better in the transfer. The overall video quality of the first episode is noticeably worse than the rest of the series.
The colour is not particularly bold or bright, but adequate for a documentary series.
The video if rife with artefacts from the transfer to DVD. The bitrate of the video is fairly low . The video suffers from interlacing throughout, which contributes toward making many of the fast motion scenes appear blurry (e.g. during a horse charge at 27:43 during the second episode or during any one of the live battle re-enactments). The video suffers from excessive edge enhancement in almost every scene. Edge enhancement halos/rings are especially strongly visible around the presenters throughout the series. Aliasing and pixelization are occasionally noticeable, but generally not too bad.
There are no subtitle tracks for the series, but closed captions are available - if your hardware can handle them correctly.
The layer break on each disc is between episodes.
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One audio track is available, English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps).
The dialogue is clear and suffers no sync issues.
The series makes good use of music and effects, particularly with its bold score that is repeated frequently throughout the series. There is no use of the surround channels and minimal bass that is deep enough for a subwoofer to enhance, but this presentation is adequate for the series.
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Standard animated menus with the title music to the show.
Short text biographies on the two presenters.
A random episode of the show War Walks, which aired in the late 1990s, about one of the more notable British battles not covered by Battlefield Britain is included in this package. It runs at 28:51. The video is fairly soft and occasionally displays MPEG artefacts, but is adequate for the show.
The episode is reasonably interesting, but nowhere near as engaging as Battlefield Britain. Watching this episode of War Walks really illustrates how much of an improvement Battlefield Britain is on its predecessors. War Walks is certainly founded on interesting history, but everything about its production comes off as cheesy and amateur in comparison. Everything that viewers may remember laughing at when watching history documentaries in high school is on display. Colossal battles being re-enacted by 3 men in shiny armour, handfuls of arrows flying through the air as if someone holding the lot of them had just thrown them in front of the camera, and an awkward presenter who certainly knows what he is talking about, but whose lack of charisma even makes viewers embarrassed on his behalf.
This is a peculiar extra. I have to wonder what the motivation for its inclusion is as it really doesn't add much to the overall package. A basic making of documentary on Battlefield Britain or something similar would have made for a much better package.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This package is identical to the Region 1 release of Battlefield Britain, right down to the NTSC formatting.
The series is available from Region 2 in the original PAL format, but each episode is sold separately (although you can find a box set that collates all the individual releases if you look hard enough) - making for a much more expensive collection. Although I have not viewed the Region 2 release for comparison, the fact that it is presented in the correct video format makes it the version of choice if cost is not an issue - although you would be looking at paying roughly 3 times the cost of the local release for that Region 2 release.
Battlefield Britain is a series that will appeal to viewers with even the smallest casual interest in history as well as history buffs. It completely re-invents and invigorates a stale genre. The episodes are just as exciting and engaging upon repeat viewing as they are on first being watched. I highly recommended this series.
The DVD set is much more difficult to recommend, however. Be warned that it can only play back on NTSC equipment and that the video quality should be better than it is on these discs. The range of extras is disappointing.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | LG V8824W, using S-Video output |
| Display | LG 80cm 4x3 CRT. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Pioneer VSX-D512. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-D512 |
| Speakers | 150W DTX front speakers, and a 100W centre and 2 surrounds, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub |