Victory at Sea

[John 3rd]

My father surprised me and bought this epic series on DVD and I am about done with the 1st disk. Am watching the Guadalcanal Episode right now. Am surprised at some of the footage I don't remember and several of the episodes still seem to hold my interest pretty well.

What do people think of the series now that it is over 55 years old?

[BrucePowers]

It has been so long since I have seen it I don't have an opinion.

[tocaff]

I remember as a kid watching it on TV Saturday or Sunday mornings.   Ummm, that was the series with the large V superimposed over water right?  I am getting old!

[John 3rd]

Yes it is.  I echo what both of yo have said.  I haven't actually WATCHED the episodes since I was a kid.  Starting disk two.  Amazes me all the Japanese footage they used.  The Emperor reviewing the Imperial Fleet and the flyovers was pretty cool.  I was testing ship ID skills!

[Feinder]

It's good in a "Rah! Rah!" kind of way.  You probably won't "learn" much, as this audience is very well read anyway.  But it is well worth you time, you'll certainly enjoy it.  Another good one (if not better, but from the Brit point of view), is the BBC's World at War.
 
-F-

[DE679]

Wow, what a nice gift John. I also used to watch this on Sunday's before church. Brings back good memories. The musical score it what I remember most. It got me all fired up and made it hard to listen to the sermon![;)]

[Hornblower]

I have it, watch it often.  Have Crusade in the Pacific too, not bad.. Not as good a Victory at Sea however

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Feinder

It's good in a "Rah! Rah!" kind of way.  You probably won't "learn" much, as this audience is very well read anyway.  But it is well worth you time, you'll certainly enjoy it.  Another good one (if not better, but from the Brit point of view), is the BBC's World at War.

-F-

Feinder,

I think The World at War is the finest historical documentary I have EVER seen. To this day in my College Classrooms I use Episode 20: Genocide to tell the story of the Holocaust. It is horrific and magnificent to watch. SIR Laurence Olivier was an inspired choice as narrator.

[TOMLABEL]

ORIGINAL: Hornblower

I have it, watch it often.  Have Crusade in the Pacific too, not bad.. Not as good a Victory at Sea however

I have both as well. Watched them both as a kid and loved them! Still do. Yes, the musical score of V is excellent and I actually listen to it on long road trips when the wife isn't with me. [:D]

You got to remember that this is really the first 'comprehensive' (term used semi-lightly) coverage that the folks at home saw of the war which was run in the early 50's if I remember correctly.

I've got World at War as well, but V holds a special place for some reason.

TOMLABEL

[JeffroK]

Great Series, given the constraint of lack of available film coverage.
 
Don't watch too many in a row.
 
You start to see the same ships bombarding and the same planes being shot down.

[witpqs]

Watched it with my father when I was a little kid. Definitely a favorite, although I haven't seen but a minute or two in many years. The opening sequence was fantastic - and looked much bigger to a little kid - with the angry North Atlantic sending ships high up and way down with the rolling music amplifying the effect! My father said that's very much what it was like when he made the crossing to England, seeing the destroyers and little corvettes racing around to protect them and getting battered by the sea.

[John 3rd]

Agreed.  Several comments made about the music by Rodgers.  IT is magnificent.  The score to World at War I remember as haunting...

[witpqs]

Oops - didn't realize the topic had shifted a bit without me posting explicitly that I was talking about Victory at Sea!

[m10bob]

Considering the fact that VAS was all film clips, it is (by today's standards) amazing the clips are actually relevant to the narrative. This was because the clips had been recently released by the governments and de-classified, still labelled by the capturing powers as to what they represented, and then spliced together by participants of that war who wanted accuracy, (never dreaming something like the History Channel would one day attempt a similar format without the barest attempt of accuracy in that regard).

[rjopel]

I recently watched the whole World at War series and when they went to the Imperial War Mueseum to view all the film they had they were asked by the currators if they would catalog it all for them as well since they had no idea what was on all of it.

[Charbroiled]

Victory at Sea is pure propaganda. Entertaining propaganda, but propaganda none the less.

I always enjoyed the part where they are showing a US sub sinking Japanese ships and the narrator is saying how couragous the skipper is and how the "brave" submarineers are taking the war to the enemy.

Then latter in the movie, they talk about the U-boats in the Atlantic and how cowardly they are for attacking ships without warning.

[jeffk3510]

John,
I have it, and watch it off and on, and for the most part, I do like it.  I like that style of presentation.

[mdiehl]

World at War was good for the time, but much of it is now dated and rendered obsolete by new and better data. It's still probably the best general video documentary series on the entire war though.
 
IMO the best historical documentaries were Ken Burns' The Civil War and The West. But I've seen ALOT of world class documentaries on US PBS. I saw a documentary on Annie Oakley a few months back that was just outstanding, and a couple of documentaries on Steven Ambrose Nothing Like it In the World, and Undaunted Courage that also earn top marks.
 
A question for our UK cousins across the pond: Is there a good (non PC) English language historical documentary on the Napoleonic Wars?

[TOMLABEL]

ORIGINAL: Charbroiled

Victory at Sea is pure propaganda. Entertaining propaganda, but propaganda none the less.

I always enjoyed the part where they are showing a US sub sinking Japanese ships and the narrator is saying how couragous the skipper is and how the "brave" submarineers are taking the war to the enemy.

Then latter in the movie, they talk about the U-boats in the Atlantic and how cowardly they are for attacking ships without warning.

I take it then, that you lived in these times and were well versed on the general public feeling during this period - and are well aware of the feelings of the family members who immediate relatives that were killed in freeing people around the globe to whom they were not indebted to?

From what I've read concerning this series is that it was WELL recieved by the GENERAL viewing public and was created by what information was released at that time.

Yes, well, I think that the U-boat sinking neutral ships without warning was cowardly and that US skippers sinking Japanese shipping after the unpresidented surprise attack on Pearl were very courageous.

"And that's the way it was....."

[marky]

ORIGINAL: Hornblower

I have it, watch it often.  Have Crusade in the Pacific too, not bad.. Not as good a Victory at Sea however

i think i have both. ill take anything on the PTO [:D]