BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Robert J. Maxwell This superior series continues in Episode Number Two. The first episode limned in the general nature of the geopolitical framework. Mainly we see happy aristocrats having a ball, poverty everywhere, and tribal allegiances strengthening.This episode leads the viewer to the declarations themselves, the result of bungling, national pride, religious conflicts, and a general absence of any sense of what would follow. Crowds cheer in Berlin, Paris, and London. They wave flags. They don't seem to realize that every war begins with the feeling that it will be over in a short time, like a high school soccer game.The act of one crazed nationalist in Sarajevo had just precipitated a conflict that would last four bloody years and result in more than 37 million civilian and military casualties.It's all tragic and judging from recent iterations, unavoidable. The questions that it raises -- in me anyway -- don't have as much to do with cultural influences as they do with biology. Is there something in human nature that NEEDS to kill? The question practically asks itself.

Vovion Over the course of the 26 episodes it covers the battles, the politics, the economics, the cultural effects and most important - the graft of the men serving both sides as they fight for increasingly fading values.What's particularly impressive is how well it holds up after almost half a decade. The footage used, while repeated at times, gives the viewer a clear guide of the people involved and what's going on while Redgrave delivers his perfectly pitched commentary. It's particularly appreciated that they managed to get some of the civilians and soldiers who actually experienced all of this, to weigh in at certain points for added humanity. Listening to them speak candidly about trench life, or running into barbed wire while having machine guns blazing at them, certainly brings an unquantifiable respect for those who fought, as the horror unfolds on the screen.The only thing I would have liked added to the documentary is an episode covering each country post-war. This would have been a more fitting end to a series that shows, quite clearly, that there were no true victors in 1918.

G K What a treasure this series is. Before I got The Great War I thought I'd never see an informative, not to mention cinematic, documentary about World War I. This was a war that was hugely influential on the modern world, yet you can learn hardly anything about it in schools or on television. So much is said about World War II, but if there was no first war there's a good chance there would not have been a second. The series contains 26 episodes; each episode lasts for about 40 minutes. That means there's a great deal of footage and information. Episode "on the idle hill of summer..." begins the series. The situation of pre-war Europe is explained in detail and style. Imperial Germany had become a major world power, with perhaps the strongest army in the world and the second largest navy in the world. This caused anxiety and a change in policies by other European powers. It was a time of great innovation. Europeans controlled about 80% of the world through colonialism. It was still the age of steam, yet many inventions that would become very important later were constantly being introduced. The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Slavic nationalist Gavrilo Princip would draw all the European powers and eventually the world into a war that would cause Europe's end as the center of civilization. World War I included great battles. Millions of lives were lost. All this is covered expertly in the series. Interviewees appeared in several episodes.The music for the series was composed by Wilfred Josephs. It was performed by the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Hurst. His expressive yet unsentimental score was widely acclaimed at the time, and many have recalled the strong contribution it made to the series. In addition to Joseph's original score, much use was made of some great 20th Century symphonies; Shostakovitch's 11th and Vaughan Williams Sinfonia Antartica, to name two. The narration by Michael Redgrave is excellent. The series, unparalleled at the time for its depth of research, range of source material and historical accuracy - all presented in a sequence of clear narratives - is now considered one of the finest achievements of BBC documentary. The Great War really shows how great a conflict World War I was. It was epic. Following transmission of the series by the Republic of Ireland's national TV station, Telefis Eireann, The Great War won a Jacob's Award at the 1964 presentation ceremony in Dublin. There appear to be two releases as of mid-2007, both in the UK, both Region 2. If you like documentaries then don't miss out on this series. It is now a favourite of mine.

rjcroton This documentary is possibly the best documentary series ever made. If I could, I would give it an extra star, so it could be the Pershing of documentaries. The fact it beats The World at War and other stunningly epic documentaries shows how incredible it really is.As a man who has spent his life thinking on history, and could potentially spend a long professional life doing it, all I can say is how refreshing the series is. Unlike other documentaries, it has no platitudes or ahistorical biases, it presents the conflict accurately. Startlingly accurately, with its amazing black and white footage and interviews.Not only that, but Sir Michael Redgrave topples all narrating rivals in his performances. Forever now will I associate his voice with the conflict, strong, unique and filled with power.It's the detail that shocks. The emphasis on context, too. By presenting it so historically and professionally, it puts the conflict in its proper place in history and in society. I've watched newer documentaries, and have had to study the literature extensively for my higher education, but never was I more moved than watching this documentary.Please, seek this series out when you can. It may never be released on Blu-Ray. In-fact, I'd buy a DVD player just for watching this series again, and I'd keep a compatible TV too, just in case. If I was off to a desert island, this would probably be the series I'd take.