The War - A Ken Burns Film - updated for 2013 with bonus programming [Region 2 UK Version] [DVD]

If you interested in world war 2 watch this documentary

Absolutely loved this incredible series, though it did have me in tears at times. Yes it is US-centric, but it doesn't pretend or try to be anything else. The story of the US's involvement in WWII told mainly from the point of view of 4 American small towns. Fantastic first hand accounts from those who fought, those who loved and were left behind, those who supported. If it's a period in history that interests you at all, you need to see this! Every country that was involved had a different story to tell, yet you know there is so much overlap of experience. To understand the US perspective is to understand our greatest ally and a key component of understanding the whole subject of the world's most monumental conflict. My partner and I were glued to the screen, as much as anything for the very human element. Enjoy this masterwork from the master - Ken Burns!

This is from the perspective of 2 American towns in WWII; those who served and those who stayed. It's superlative work. It covers the American exposure to the European and Pacific wars in detail and doesn't shy away from the depth of the horror. It's deliberately and definitively from a US perspective so that allows it to concentrate on the experiences of a small set of people but that's NOT a problem for non US viewers; I really know WWII history, I'm English and I was deeply moved and impressed by this series. Everything Ken Burns produces is excellent and this is no different.

More Americans learn history from Ken Burns documentary series than from any other source. When I bought this one, I expected a more jingoistic slant on it, very much "How America Won the War", but it is not. It does deal with WW2 largely from the expected American POV, and as far as I could see, it is very factual, and does not by any means belittle the fighting efforts of the British and Commonwealth/Empire soldiers who took part. It is quite watchable by British people and unlikely to cause them any offence. After all, even we Brits recognise that the American armies and airforce were essential to the winning of WW2: when Churchill referred to us being in "our darkest hour", he wasn't kidding.

A terrific film of mans inhumanity to fellow people.Yes it was war at its worse and these things happened however it shows the bravery of those who took part in it and the way it affected others.A terrific film that shows it as it was.

What can you say about this Ken Burns documentary. Got it for my husband at Christmas and he was glued to it. Extremely well made and thought out. Harrowing and moving.

This documentry tells the story from a perspective of a different contry. This contry had problemms with raceism as well as a war they didn't want to fight America It tells the story at a real personal level.

Another ken burns masterpiece would reccomend it to anybody interested in ww2

The War DVD box set came exactly as described. It was pre-owned, yet in very good to almost excellent condition.After watching this when it aired on PBS years ago, working my way through the series again now, yet no issues thus far and all discs are visibly clean.Very satisfied!!

Vidi questo documentario sulla RAI e lo trovai molto interessante. Quando ho visto i DVD con audio italiano non ci ho pensato due volte e l'ho acquistato, peccato che, di tutte le lingue indicate ci sia solo l'inglese. Ho dovuto avviare la procedura di reso ... Speriamo bene.

This was fascinating - Burns is always so thorough, so insightful.

Contrairement au descriptif d'Amazon, l'audio est uniquement en Anglais.Pas d'audio ni de sous titres en Français ou autres langues.

My late father (Canadian WWII author George G. Blackburn) would have appreciated this -- but he couldn't be with me, last night, as I watched the first episode of this latest `masterpiece' from Ken Burns. I tried my best to see it through my father's eyes. [He was the longest-surviving "Forward Observation Officer" (FOO) on any front in WWII. FOO's, always with front-line troops, lasted an average of 23 hours before being killed or wounded; George Blackburn lasted ten months from just after D-Day until VE-Day (Victory in Europe).]My father appreciated ALL of Ken Burns' work (especially the "Baseball" series -- Dad was a star pitcher when he was young: he left me his VHS tapes of that one).My father, who almost made it to age 90, lived long enough to author a best-selling WWII trilogy for Canada's largest publishing house. He would have been greatly impressed, I believe, with Ken Burns' latest accomplishment."Episode One -- A NECESSARY WAR" aired last evening (on our closest PBS station -- "Prairie Public Television" of North Dakota - which gets most of its funding from this Manitoba city of 700,000). I found myself enthralled by Ken Burns' approach to "THE WAR."-----We're taken in quick sequence to four places: a small town in Connecticut - close to New York City - "Waterbury." Next we visit the Midwest, (a town just to the south of us, here in Manitoba) -- Luverne, Minnesota; then, off to the heart of the South -- Mobile, Alabama; and finally, out to the west coast -- standing in for all of California - SACRAMENTO (a city of "110 thousand that feels like a small town").The opening thoughts --from Luverne MN - are narrated by a familiar voice (from "Saving Private Ryan") -- Tom Hanks:"Much of the world was already at war in the Fall of 1941 . . . " (and)"There was a saying (in this small town where everybody knew everyone else's business) that, "If you don't want everyone to know about it . . . don't do it."In our first glimpse at Mobile, we're introduced to one WWII veteran, now in his 80s, "John Gray who (because of the color of his skin) would soon be asked to fight a war for `Freedom' - though his own country's definition of that word, didn't include HIM."Then back to the Midwest for a few minutes: "Sam Hynes," a surprisingly young-looking WWII veteran from Minnesota who was "barely 17 in 1941," recalls how,"You could, all of a sudden, choose to be an adult (just) by signing your name; and suddenly (I see myself as) a fighter pilot - an "Ace" . . . or a submarine commander going into Tokyo Bay: It is the opportunity to be someone more exciting than the kid you are."[To inject a personal note (since my lovely, new daughter-in-law "Eriko" hails from Osaka Japan), I was deeply moved by the interviews with Japanese-Americans, now in their 80s, who'd been singled out as enemy aliens, requiring internment.We see and hear "Asako Tokuno" -- born in America, whose parents were born in Japan, as she fights back tears, recalling what it was like (on a day's notice) to be sent off to remote internment camps.We're told how this grim process flowed from a simple, innocuous-sounding "executive order" from President Roosevelt's office: "(First,) designate military areas - then exclude anyone who might pose a military threat." On the strength of which, "110 thousand Japanese-Americans were forced out of their homes, with only the possessions they could carry, and moved inland."But it's the interviews with those "old soldiers" (Navy, Airmen and Marines too), that really hit home: Some of these men being interviewed, were still in their teens when they volunteered for military service; they're still comparatively young-looking today. But you hear some of their stories on this great program - and you wonder how they survived at all. "Glen Frazier" with the infantry in the Phillipines, (the largest, eventual surrender of Americans in U.S. military history) was among those few who survived the infamous "Bataan Death March." A good-looking man in his old age, he quietly sums up the experience in a sentence or two.After a march in which he saw his comrades (and Filipino civilians including women) "beheaded, buried alive" (etc.) -- a march on which between 6,000 and 11,000 died ("no one knows for certain the correct number") -- Mr. Frazier, says, matter-of-factly,"I marched without sleep for six days and seven nights . . . no water and no food. They say you can't do that. But I did. (At the end of the march) my tongue wouldn't go back into my mouth."Ken Burns' approach is so well-balanced and suddenly, inter-cut gracefully with such horrific recollections are the peaceful scenes of small-town America - back where "war bond drives raise one billion dollars in a month."We learn that "The War" cost the U.S. 304 billion dollars ("more than 3 trillion in today's terms"). Citizens of Sacramento - "in one bond drive alone" raised 16 million "to pay for 96 minutes of the war.")Statistics are parceled out in small digestible chunks throughout the show - again a remarkable "balance" to keep the show moving along at a pace that an entire family watching this together, would appreciate. (I watched alone but kept thinking that my ten-year-old grandson would find this as riveting as Ken Burns' "THE CIVIL WAR."------Ken Burns reserves the longest, single interview in Program One until the very end. I didn't catch the name of this "old soldier" when it flashed on the screen (I was busy jotting down a note about him). He is an Hispanic-American who joined the Marines -- after the Navy twice turned him down ("too small").He tells the story of the death of one of his buddies (on one of the Solomon Islands, which he described as "hell on earth") recounting how his "best friend" died on a night "so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of you" - so dark he didn't realize it was his own best friend who'd taken a single bullet of `friendly fire' -- then moaned and cried out in the darkness, "all night until dawn."Not knowing who this dying man was, but, like the rest of his buddies, desperately in need of sleep, he muttered under his breath, "Just DIE -- Die, will you? -- let the rest of us get some sleep." He runs out of words to say - allowing the viewer imagine how he felt at the moment he saw his friend's body in the light of day. The episode ends there, with a fade-to-black in silence.How wished I could have turned to my father to say, "Well . . . what do you think of it, so far?" I believe he'd have said (once again) "Good work, Ken Burns!" But then, I can hear his voice adding, "Bet you Canada (and its WWII efforts) will hardly get a mention." (Hope you're wrong, Dad!)