The World At War
Part Four
This review is sponsored by
Details At A Glance
|
General
|
Extras
|
| Category |
Documentary |
Time Line Main Menu with Audio and
Animation
Synopsis - Episode Summaries
Notes - Brief History of The World At War
Biographies - Major National and Military Leaders
Web Link
Galleries - Photo |
| Rating |
 |
| Year Released |
1974 |
| Running Time |
248:27 minutes
(Not 260 minutes as stated on the packaging)
|
| RSDL/Flipper |
Disc 1: Dual Layered
Disc 2: No/No |
Cast & Crew
|
| Start Up |
Menu |
| Region |
1,2,3,4,5,6 |
Director |
Various |
Studio
Distributor
|
Thames
Warner Vision Australia
|
Starring |
Sir Laurence Olivier (Narrator)
Eric Porter (Narrator) |
| Case |
Dual Black Amaray |
| RPI |
$59.95 |
Music |
Carl Davis |
|
Video
|
Audio
|
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame |
Full Frame |
English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 224
Kb/s) |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio |
No |
| 16x9 Enhancement |
No |
| Original Aspect Ratio |
1.33:1 |
Miscellaneous
|
| Macrovision |
?Yes |
Smoking |
Yes |
| Subtitles |
None |
Annoying Product Placement |
No |
| Action In or After Credits |
No |
Plot Synopsis
This is a slightly different entry in The World At
War series, as it provides the concluding episodes to the series itself
and also provides a few of the special presentations.
Since there is little need for further preamble regarding
this landmark series, straight on with the contents themselves. The episodes
and special presentations making up this two DVD set are:
Disc 1
-
Episode 24 - The Bomb: February - September 1945 (52:05)
The entire war was the reason behind vast technological advancements
and resulted in vastly improved radar, stunning advances in aviation such
that the first jet fighters emerged, rocketry advancements that saw the
emergence of what amounted to prototype ICBM's in the form of the V-2 and
many others. However, perhaps the most important development and equally
the most extreme and dangerous development was that of the nuclear bomb.
Whilst the Germans were certainly heading in the same direction, the fact
is that the Americans developed the first such weapon, tested the first
such weapon and became the only country to ever use the weapon in anger.
Oppenheimer's deadly toy. It changed the way war was waged - the potential
to annihilate entire cities with one bomb. It changed forever the way the
world looked within itself as nuclear capabilities threatened the very
existence of the entire planet at the drop of a hat. This episode looks
at how the arguments raged about the way the weapon should be used - if
it was indeed to be used - and the reasons for its eventual deployment
on that fateful day of 6th August, 1945. Morally, the arguments will rage
for the rest of history: was it really necessary to deploy the bomb and
its plutonium cousin a few days later? Did it really bring a rapid end
to the war? Many will argue for and many will argue against. But remember
that at the time the Japanese were a spent force and US planes had virtually
a free reign over Japan and B-29 bombers were able to attack at will virtually
any target they liked. What cannot be denied though is that the inhumanity
of man once again came to the fore.
-
Episode 25 - Reckoning: April 1945 (51:07)
As the war slowly but inexorably draws to a close in Europe, the politicians
thoughts switch from military matters to political matters. Practicalities
as to who was to control what in the post war period had broadly been decided
amongst the Allied powers, but that does not mean to say that everything
went smoothly or to plan. The conquerors as usual had the spoils of war
to worry about and there were plenty of worries. Unlike the First World
War, which had a nice conclusion in the Versailles Treaty which basically
annoyed the losers and bred the seeds of World War Two, Germany had to
be restored as an industrial nation. The Soviets wanted its reparations
to restore a severely damaged infrastructure and only through a return
of Germany to industrial power would that be able to be achieved. There
was also the need to punish those that waged aggressive war and thus The
Nuremberg Trials took place so as to set down international precedents
for punishing those who were responsible for aggressive war. There was
the need to address the fact that The Iron Curtain descended upon Europe
and how this changed the face of Europe. There was a lot to be reckoned
about. About the only thing for sure though is that the losers did rather
well out of the war.
-
Episode 26 - Remember (49:34)
It is difficult to forget really. But there is a deal that needs to
be remembered and there are many ways to do so. Let's begin with one of
the most poignant. Oradour is a small village in France that most will
never have heard of. Yet this is one of the most powerful monuments to
the Second World War. In 1944, the Germans marched into the village and
rounded up its inhabitants - the women and children were herded into the
church whilst the men were herded into barns. Those in the church first
heard the entire male population of the village shot before they too were
massacred in the church. The village was never rebuilt and remains as it
was after the Germans marched on. The ruins are there still as a monument
to the massacre. It is difficult to forget the 55 million people, like
those of the village of Oradour, who lost their lives during the Second
World War and this episode serves to remind us of what and how we remember.
Disc 2
-
Special Presentation - Secretary To Hitler (23:02)
Traudl Junge was in the rare position of being in the inner
circle staff of Adolf Hitler and here recounts some of the goings
on in the latter part of the war as Adolf Hitler retreated to the
bunker in Berlin to suffer the last few weeks of the war before committing
suicide. As a personal secretary to Hitler, she had intimate knowledge
of the period and the man, including typing his personal and political
testaments. Whilst some of the material has already been seen or heard
in earlier episodes in the series, this is still an interesting and fascinating
recounting from an ordinary woman in extraordinary times.
-
Special Presentation - Who Won World War II (22:28)
American historian Stephen Ambrose presents some at times rather unconventional
thoughts on who really did win World War II. Some winners are obvious -
the Soviet Union for instance, since for the first time in Russian history
it had a buffer between it and Europe which for hundreds of years had laid
siege to it at various times. It gained control of Eastern Europe and this
gave it the means to recover from the effects of the war (although with
the benefits of a further twenty five years of hindsight, this is perhaps
not so great a benefit). Germany and Japan saw their shattered countries
rebuilt as industrial giants to the extent that they have significant economic
influence in the global market. The United States not only won the war
militarily but with a huge boost to their industrial might and plenty of
money made from the war, they became the most influential power on Earth
- economically and militarily. As for the rest? Well, quite what Great
Britain got from winning the war remains the bone of much contention. Again
whilst some of the material has already been seen or heard in earlier episodes
in the series, this is still an interesting look at a not-so-obvious answer.
-
Special Presentation - Warriors (50:11)
A rather enigmatic and curious presentation that attempts in many ways
to summarize that there are very many ways that men go to war and there
are very many ways in which men experience war. Through the spoken words
of many men who fought during the war, played over imagery from the war,
I suppose what we learn here is that they may be warriors but they are
not often warriors in the epic sense of Homer. Their reflections perhaps
show that ordinary men may become warriors but they still remain men. This
is possibly the least successful single item included in the entire package
to date.
There is nothing more to add that was not said in my
review of The World At War - Part Three,
except to say that should you be looking for a single set as a representative
of the series, this is perhaps not the one to choose.
Transfer Quality
Video
This is still a television series made in 1974 using
extensive original material dating from the 1940s, with interview material
recorded in the early 1970s. There remains enormous variety in the quality
on offer in the transfer. Having said that, this effort does at times disappoint
more than the previously reviewed DVD.
The transfer is of course presented in a Full Frame
format that is obviously not 16x9 enhanced.
With the same preamble that applied to The
World At War - Part Three, we pretty much run the same gamut
from almost non-existent definition and clarity, with lousy shadow detail,
through to actual better than expected definition, shadow detail and clarity.
Most of the material demonstrates reasonable enough detail and definition,
with average shadow detail. The noticeable difference in this effort is
the fact that grain is far more prevalent than in the earlier DVD reviewed
and clarity suffers even more than before. Add to that the fact that the
filmed interview of Stephen Ambrose is quite poor in general, and
the overall result is one that is quite noticeably worse than the earlier
DVD. There would appear to be some low level noise problems at times.
Most of the programming is black and white archive
footage with the interview material in colour. However, since more of the
footage comes from the latter stages of the war there is more colour footage
on offer here. The archival footage is again pretty much all over the place
in terms in colour. Some material is quite decent with nice tones, whilst
other material is quite poor with basically various shades of murky grey
on offer. The interview material does not display great colour and is a
little undersaturated throughout. The colour footage from the war displays
the general lack of quality expected in such footage, with colours being
rather poorly rendered.
There does not appear to be any significant MPEG
artefacts in the transfer, with the same proviso of being hidden by the
grain. There is nothing significant in the way of film-to-video artefacts
in the transfer. There is plenty in the way of film artefacts in the transfer
and in this respect some of the interview footage is far worse than expected.
The first DVD is presumably Dual
Layer formatted since there was no obvious layer change noted
during the programming. The second DVD is a single sided, single layer
effort.
Video Ratings Summary
| Sharpness |
  |
| Shadow Detail |
|
| Colour |
 |
| Grain |
 |
| Film-to-Video Artefacts |
|
| Film Artefacts |
|
| Overall |
|
Audio
There is just the one soundtrack on offer on the DVD,
being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. This principally comprises
the narration from Sir Laurence Olivier and Eric Porter with
sound effects and music added for effect.
The narration comes up well in the soundtrack and
is easy to understand. There did not appear to be any real issues with
audio sync in the transfer.
The original music score comes from Carl Davis,
and remains at the high standard set for the series in general.
Basically you can forget about the technicalities
of the soundtrack. This is designed purely to convey the narration and
other dialogue, which it does well enough. There is no real problem at
all with the soundtrack, even though it is a fairly basic. It is free of
any significant distortion, surround channel use or bass channel use.
Audio Ratings Summary
| Dialogue |
|
| Audio Sync |
|
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts |
|
| Surround Channel Use |
 |
| Subwoofer |
|
| Overall |
|
Extras
Well at least there is an effort made, but frankly it
is hardly worth the effort. This is one of those instances where the extras
simply cannot really do any justice to the programming or the events and
people involved.
Menu
The Time Line Menu is slightly modified in this instance
to have a preceding static menu for the special presentations but is otherwise
consistent to that seen already in the series. The same comments apply
in general. It demonstrates the relationship of each particular episode
to the overall war. It does mean however that you need to know the name
of the episode you want to watch in order to select the right one (only
valid selections for the DVD playing can be highlighted though), and they
are not listed in episode order so if you miss the introduction to the
menu, you might have difficulty in selecting the episodes in the right
sequence if you want to so watch them. It does take a little while to get
the hang of the menu. There is some decent introductory animation and audio
enhancement.
Synopsis - Episode Summaries
Provides a very short summary of each episode.
Notes - Brief History of The World At War
A brief, five page, history of the series itself, which
in all honesty could have been left off the package.
Biographies - Major National and Military Leaders
Given that these comprise single page bios for 17 of
the major political and military leaders of the main combatants, with a
photo of each to go with it, one does have to question whether it was a
worthwhile exercise. After all, how exactly do you condense the entire
lives of some of the major figures of the Twentieth Century into so little
space and still be meaningful? On the balance of things, pretty well meaningless
and of no real value at all.
Web Link
Links to the sites of the series and the Imperial War
Museum.
Galleries - Photos
Since these at best comprise between one and seven photos
per episode or special presentation, they once again hardly rate on the
worthiness scale. However, they do again generally have some decent annotation!
Censorship
As far as we have been able to ascertain, there are
no censorship issues with this title.
R4 vs R1
As far as we have been able to ascertain, there has
been no release of this programming in Region 1.
Summary
The World At War provided an excellent broad
scale overview of the Second World War when first aired and still is virtually
unexcelled in all the years since. Forget the technical qualities on offer
here, for there is little that an excellent transfer can do with some marginal
source material. Having said that however, this does smack a little of
some sloppiness in the presentation: end credits not fading to black before
the DVD searches for the menu, meaning that a ghost like image remains
being one example. Another is the bad truncation of the third episode credits
on disc one before the music finishes, repeated to a slightly lesser degree
on disc two. Still for the collector of the whole series this remains an
essential purchase.
| Video |
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| Audio |
|
| Extras |
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| Plot |
|
| Overall |
|
© Ian Morris (have
a laugh, check out the bio)
3rd April, 2001
|
Review Equipment
|
| DVD |
Pioneer DV-515; S-video output |
| Display |
Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD
version of Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder |
Built in |
| Amplification |
Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version
of Video Essentials. |
| Speakers |
Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears
EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |
