War of the Century

I bought this documentary on a DVD, and seen it at least 20 times so far. No matter how many times I've seen it, every time I find a new interesting detail. It consists of 4 episodes, with the overall length of 4 hours so.

The brutality of the eastern front is revealed vividly, and one starts to understand where the second world war was really decided. Listening to real people (of all kinds) on both sides, and connecting this to historical facts gives a full picture of events.

This documentary is a masterpiece, and if you buy this DVD, you won't be sorry.

Well directed with excellent interviews and footage. I found it amazing how good the interviewed witnesses looked, some 55 years later. All witnesses had photos of themselves from the era.

Only problem is, there are maybe two episodes missing. Episode three ends with the Nazis surrendering at Stalingrad in February 1943. Episode four begins in June of 1944. What happened during those 16 intervening months ?? No mention of Kursk. No discussion of how the Russians clawed there way 1000 miles to the border of Germany. Episode four is mostly wrap up and discussion of war crimes and aftermath, very little detail on the military campaign.

This is a great documentary I must say and I've seen thousands. The 1st hand accounts are enthralling. I 1st watched this on the History Channel who uses their own narrator Michael Carrol who does a much better job than the DVD's Samuel West. I was disappointed when I bought it on DVD and it had the BBC narrator. It's so night and day the difference, and the dialogue is almost the same word for word. If you've seen this on DVD and liked it then try to locate the History Channel version under the Roger Mudd series History Alive. It's 10x better and it frankly makes watching the DVD version hard after seeing the History Channel version. The series is not at all a propaganda film but a collection of 1st hand accounts & interviews that told it how it was. While it is not in depth about the tactical aspect of the battles and doesn't have some of the battles that happened in it,I don't think that was the aim of the documentary in the first place. There are no falsifications I found in it, no made up facts. It's not jaded I found. If it wanted to paint the Soviets as evil or bad then it would have mentioned the Soviet attack on Finland,occupation of Baltic states and the invasion of Eastern Poland and the murder of Polish POW officers as well. It's some accounts of what happened when the worlds most criminal and deplorable dictators and their ideologies clashed on the battlefield.

This is a remarkable achievement (originally, four 50 minute episodes, but presented here as a 200 minute continuous whole on the DVD), unique in its content, style, and focus.

Some will say, 'I've seen this type of thing before - grainy black & white footage, while an erudite British voice intones in the background'. Or, 'more "war and Nazis"?; how many of these can the history channel show?' In fact, this film is unique. Anyone with the slightest interest in the second world war should consider it a 'must see'.

For the uninitiated, it provides a comprehensive and stirring presentation of what is arguably the most important battle of the most important war of the 20th, and possibly, any, century. For those more familiar with World War II and its history, stories, and tragedy, this documentary fills in a huge hole. A hole that has been present in virtually every non-Soviet-produced film of its kind - the hole that is the battle on the Eastern Front. This production, especially by its frequent and masterful use of archival footage and its inclusion of first-person accounts by the victors (Soviets), the vanquished (Germans), and the eternally oppressed (the innocent civilians of all stripes), has filled the gap.

Here, one is spared nothing. The atrocities are graphically presented (13 million Soviet civilians died, and millions more of its soldiers perished as well). But the inclusion of such horrors is not just for shock value (as shocking it is). No, the viewer is considered sophisticated and interested enough to be informed of the more fundamental reasons for the slaughter.

The enormity of the atrocities notwithstanding, the film also details and chronicles the more "usual" battles of the campaign. And here, it has few rivals - comprehensive, endowed with multiple first-person accounts (some disarmingly non-contrite), and an impressive amount of (what I presume to be) previously unseen color footage. The net effect is to convey to the viewer a picture, and a lesson, which few, if any, other documentaries of its kind are able.

This is a remarkable film. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the "war in the east", get it. You will not be disappointed.

Go add this, now, to the #1 spot of your movie cue. Seriously, stop reading and go do it. Done? OK, now you can keep reading.

While War of the Century ("WOTC") is limited in scope to "just" the German v. Russian fronts, it one of the best documentaries ever produced in regards to the mentality of World War II. In that respect, it far exceeds the BBC's epic "The World at War" and Ken Burns' "The War." Moreover, WOTC manages to accomplish this in a mere four installments of 45-min episodes.

As others have said, this WOTC is riveting, moving, and wholly unsettling. There is brutally frank discussion about the extremes to which war drives people. Ex German and Russian soldiers talk about how, and why, they killed members of their own armies and innocent by-standers. Civilians, and soldiers, talk about their roles in murder, cannibalism, rape, torture, racism, and total destruction of the "enemy" (who is often hard to define at certain times).

In Apocalypse Now Col. Kurtz says, "It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face … and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared." WOTC, through startling personal accounts, brings the stark reality of WWII right in to the comfort of your cozy living room. Bottom line: This is one of the top 3 documentaries on WWII (or any war) that I have seen. Moreover, it is a dark look into the human nature, and and the extremes to which people can endure.