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List Price: $99.95Amazon.com's Price: $51.49 You Save: $48.46 (48%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767065757
Format: Box set, Black & White, NTSC
ISBN: 0767065751
Label: A&E Home Video
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Number Of Items: 11
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: August 24, 2004
Running Time: 1357 minutes
Sales Rank: 578
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Sir Jeremy Isaacs highly deserves the numerous awards for documentaries he has earned: the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, l'Ordre National du Mérit, an Emmy, and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His epic The World at War remains unsurpassed as the definitive visual history of World War II.
The Second World War was different from other wars in thousands of ways, one of which was the unparalleled scope of visual documents kept by the Axis and Allies of all their activities. As a result, this war is understood as much through written histories as it is through its powerful images. The Nazis were particularly thorough in documenting even the most abhorrent of the atrocities they were committing--in a surprising amount of color footage. The World at War was one of the first television documentaries that exploited these resources so completely, giving viewers an unbelievable visual guide to the greatest event in the 20th century. This is to say nothing of the excellent, comprehensible narrative. Some highlights:
- A New Germany 1933-39: early German and Nazi documentation of Hitler's rise to power through the impending attack on Poland
- Whirlwind: the early British losses in the blitz in the skies over Britain and in North Africa
- Stalingrad: the turning point of the war and Germany's first defeat
- Inside the Reich--Germany 1940-44: one of the most fascinating documentaries that exists on life inside Nazi Germany, from Lebensborn to the Hitler Youth
- Morning: prior to Saving Private Ryan, one of the only unromanticized views of the Normandy invasion
- Genocide: this film is one of the most widely shown introductions to the Holocaust
- Japan 1941-45: although The World at War is decidedly focused more on the European theater, this is an important look into wartime Japan and its expansion--early 20th-century history that lead to Japan's role in World War II is superficial
- The bomb: another widely shown documentary of the Manhattan Project, the Enola Gay, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki
The World at War will remain the definitive visual history of World War II, analogous to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. No serious historian should be missing The World at War in a collection, and no student should leave school without having seen at least some of its salient episodes. Rarely is film so essential. --Erik J. Macki
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Classic Documentary
This 1970's documentary is a great classic. Great footage and editorial comment by a number of historians as well as the combatants from all sides of the conflict. While this British produced piece shows a lot from the Anglo perspective, it really does have a good balance covering the war in it's entire scope. If you like a flag flying, victory by sheer might type of story, this is probably NOT the documentary for you.
If you want to get the "feel" of the war from the London blitz to the siege ... Read More
Rating: - The World at War 30th Anniversary Edition
I first knew of "The World at War" in re-runs through cable TV. I had seen bits and pieces but never watched any one episode. When I became interested in studying the Second World War, I decided to purchase this DVD set.
To me, what is important in any documentary, is not only the footage of the war itself but also the interviews from people who lived during that particular period. At the time that this documentary was made, many who lived through the events of the Second World War were ... Read More
Rating:  - Great
It was not long after my family moved into the very first home we had ever owned, in our line's history, that I recall watching, with my dad, a really good television show called The World At War, which recounted the history of the Second World War. The documentary series was produced between 1971 and 1974 by Jeremy Isaacs of Thames Television and featured many key interview subjects, from the common soldier in all the armies to major powerbrokers such as Lord Mountbatten, war correspondent and novelist ... Read More
Rating:  - The pathetic smugness and fact distortion of a winner
I will keep it short and won't repeat what others have said. The DVD set is 'visually' definitive in every sense of the word. I do not believe I have ever seen a more complete collection of WW2 material, be it films, photos, documents, and luckily they caught up with several eye witnesses who told the war in their own words. Something one should be thankful for, especially now all of those witnesses are dead, except maybe two.
The commentary was nowhere near subjective. For the most ... Read More
Rating: - tour d'force
A subtle and powerful presentation of history. Factually excellent the series introduction specifies the intent and methodology comprehensively, and I strongly recommend viewing this intro.
Interviews with actual senior participants presenting their view of events, reasoning for same is often powerful but mostly trite(the poor reasoning!) while always interesting - all sides represented and well balanced. The inserting of original footage is often spectacular (Leni Refinstahl in particular)
I ... Read More
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