The World at War

1973

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
  • 0
9.2| TV-PG| en| More Info
Released: 31 October 1973 Ended
Producted By: Thames Television
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A documentary series that gives a historical account of the events of World War II, from its roots in the 1920s to the aftermath and the lives it profoundly influenced.

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Director

Hugh Ragett, Peter Batty

Production Companies

Thames Television

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The World at War Audience Reviews

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting
Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Console best movie i've ever seen.
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
nigelturner-66212 The history - particularly the political history - of WW2 has been a life-long interest of mine so it means something when I say that this is probably the single best general documentary of the period I know. I watched the first broadcasts as a teenager in the UK and was spellbound. So much so that when I finally watched episodes again, decades later in the era of YouTube, I found I could still predict some of the narration, which in parts boarders on the poetic - I strongly recommend the opening of the episode on the desert in this respect, but many other parts are just as good. As one might expect after more than forty years of historical research, some aspects must come over as dated, even to the general public. Notable in this respect is the role of the code-breakers at Bletchley Park and Arlington Hall in the Battle of the Atlantic and in the Pacific, which was still classified when the series was made. Nonetheless, for balance between political, military and social history the World at War cannot be beaten. Of course the series is Anglocentric, having been made primarily for a British audience at time before the word globalization had been coined. But put in the context of the early 1970's it was pretty impartial and remains great television. If you are at all interested in the period and have not yet seen this series then I'm jealous that you still have the pleasure of watching it for the first time.
leon_k_92 This documentary is awesome for people who would take everything for granted as it stands in the recent history, I for one don't.I don't really think it is that simple, I understand the climate that the world felt when the documentary was produced, but haven't you noticed that usually the winners write the history, haven't you noticed that the climate the world felt back in 70' even now even though we are entering some kind of enlightenment which still stands for conspiracy, was determined by the winners.First of all I am not pro Hitler, I try to be neutral and honest. But do you in a sane mind think that one person alone made one of the most populated countries to hate the Jews? I didn't see one episode where they explained how, why what is the real reason Hitler came to power.What about an episode where the truth was shown, where they show what the winning countries of WWI did to the Germans after the war, how they humiliated them (even on the streets) let's not talk about the global humiliation. The Jews role in all of this, why did the Germans hated them... I didn't see any explanation on how Mussolini was hanged by his own people, at the same time kids were dying in the name of Hitler how come.. I did not see explanations on how Germany from being a humiliated country and completely broke, rose up under Hitler to become as powerful as it became, alone to handle the war against the whole world.Other things, the climate of not being able to raise your hand, the idea of not being able to have Hitler as a surname, not being able to even QUESTION anything otherwise you are anti Jews you are a racist and all of these things are really making me think you are hiding something.. How come people like Genghis Khan, Roman empire Caesars, Alexander, Muhammed and who not... people who conquered killed thousands and millions are celebrated.. Filthy conquerors aren't they by today standards.. Well if i were a German id take some pride in this, won't let just to be humiliated, after all they fought the whole world, unjustly all the greatest countries in the world conspired against ONE countries alone. They barely won.This topic has no ending.. Jews: i have nothing, literally nothing against Jews, its inspiring to see the country of Israel where it stands among other Muslim countries and it looks like different planet blossomed flower in terms of development compared to the others, it's inspiring.. Jews have produced amazing scientist and people who contributed to the development of the world we see today, my personal hero Carl Sagan is a Jew i get inspired from him every day. I will never support what was done to the Jews.. I will question weather they were 6 million but even if they were 250th, nothing justifies it.. But did Hitler had any point on what was he doing, I guess he did just as Americans did with the Indians, some do it straightforwardly some do it secretly... But the winners write the history as I said...The treatment of Jews is nothing worse compared to the treatment of the Indians and the Africans in America.. If Germans won the war this would not be such a big of a deal.. I don't see people getting crazy on the Americans for what they did to the black people.. for me it has the same severity if not even bigger.. same goes for the Indians too. plus not to mention what destruction have the human races suffered in the past but nobody seems to care anymore.I am not sure that the Brits and USA choose the right ally but time heals everything. Brits lost their empire and the world domination..(Just as it was predicted in Hitler's book.( many things were predicted in that book but never mentioned in the documentary all that was mentioned was that "if germany lose the war it will take all the world with them, which was taken out of contest anyway) ). After all i didn't see one episode where it was shown how Germans spared the whole British army at Dunkirk, all i heard was that Nazis were insane killing machine... Overall there are some great episodes too, but overall highly biased. 5.7/10
Joseph_Gillis I missed the original TV broadcast, through not having a television set at the time, and although this was one of the first box-sets I've bought - about ten years ago - I'm only now finally getting to watch it. As I write, I'm only five episodes in, but I'm certain that my overall assessment won't change by the time I've watched the complete set.I also have to confess to having a personal interest in this period of history as my mother worked as a nurse in London, during The Blitz, which was covered in The Alone episode, in Disc Two. she'd talked of it as a great big adventure - she was still a teenager at the time - but watching that Alone episode tonight, alone, I had the odd sensation of wondering how close I came to not being born, given the number of casualties London suffered during the bombing. (My mother also got up close enough to shake JFK's hand, during the New Ross leg of his Irish visit, in 1963, but that's another story entirely. And, no, her name isn't Zelig!)As a history buff, of course, I'm lapping up the archive film, and the brilliantly written and edited narrative, but what makes the series special for me is the people, the cast of thousands: the faces on the admiring throngs of Germans, young and old, particularly the women and young boys; the contemporary interviews with Londoners; the London woman, whose home suffered during the bombing, who was yet to be convinced by Churchill; the faces of the Russian civilian defenders; the frost-bitten German soldiers, and colleagues who froliced naked in Russian snows; but famous faces, also, such as Russian Foreign Minister, Molotov, defiant throughout his Berlin visit who, Hitler's interpreter tells us - as if the film hadn't already told us - that he wasn't one to mince his words.Last, but decidedly not least, the brilliant narration by Laurence Olivier - his finest hour? - strikes the perfect tone throughout: defiant, also, when it needs to be, but melancholic, and intermittently optimistic, also.I'd been worried that the series might have been too Brit-centric - that most of the eulogies I've read have been by Brits; it remains to be seen, of course, whether that is the case. Inevitably, you won't be able to please all of the people all of the time, but what I can say is that, as a historical document, and as a work of art, it is unquestionably a triumph, and one which I intend to revisit, many times over.
jameslipski I am a World War 2 history fanatic and any series that show what life was like during the war I have to watch. This documentary produced by the BBC is in a class by itself. Narrated by the great British actor Sir Laurence Olivier he talks like your favorite college professor whose class you never wanted to miss. This 26 part series shows everything from the causes of the conflict to the celebration of the war's end. Using actual footage filmed in numerous nations we are living in that time. The interviews with actual military and political leaders give an incite into the thinking of why battles happened the way they did.Even though the series is 40 years old it still is the best of any WW2 documentary. I am so glad the military channel still shows episodes and I watch whenever I can.