My vote goes to the russian Great War series. CGI and background music are pretty well executed.
My vote goes to the russian Great War series. CGI and background music are pretty well executed.
I too enjoyed the World at War series when I was a kid (a long time ago), it has nice theme music, nice rolling ocean waves, the narrator has a deep resonating voice, and so on. However, in my opinion no documentary does an adequate job of exploring the background and context to the Nazi regime. The factors that are typically ignored include: (1) The social and economic programs launched by the Nazi regime in the early years which enhanced its popularity (e.g., building Autobahns, reclamation projects of the Baltic coast, aid to farmers who were losing their farmsteads, etc.), which in many ways paralleled FDR's New Deal. (2) The widespread discontent over the land-grab of German territory after W.W. 1, and the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the east. The story of their suffering never gets told. (3) The rampant fear of expansionary Communism in the aftermath of W.W.1. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans were flowing out of the Soviet Union and bringing in stories of atrocities against the German farmers in the Ukraine, the Volga, and elsewhere. Ethnic Germans invited in under the Russian Tsars were nearly genocided under Stalin. There has been a tendency to retrospectively perceive the Nazi era solely in terms of its anti-Semitic policies. If anyone knows of a documentary that even remotely provides a more nuanced and non-stereotypic perspective, I would like to know of it.
I need to say, "In the Crosshairs History Channel HD" ^^
"The World at War" and "Victory at Sea' are two of my favorites! They may be old but they have stood the test of time quite well. I may be dating myself, but I have them on VHS!
mike
Similar Threads
Bookmarks