Generation War

As a WWII history buff, I was eager to view this series, but I did go into it having read the negative reviews about how it paints the Germans as victims (to an extent) and offers a rather unfavorable depiction of the Polish. Having watched it now, I have to strongly disagree with a lot of the criticisms of this series. The brothers are in the Wehrmacht, not the SS, so to me, it is more than reasonable not to see them portrayed as mindless, zombie-esque Nazis. Certainly, there were vehement Nazis in the Wehrmacht as well, but there are many accounts of men fighting due to loyalty to Germany rather than Hitler and Nazism; there are accounts of men such as this being resentful of the SS and their arrogance and preferential treatment. If one or both of the brothers had been in the SS and the series focused on their internal battle between right and wrong in regards to Nazism and anti-Semitism, then I would have found it much less realistic.As far as the portrayal of the Polish, I don't find much to pour scorn on there, either. A lot of people like to look at the war with a straight line down the middle with the Germans on the "bad" side and everyone else on the "good" side. Generally speaking about WWII, that may be fitting, but when you break it down to an individual perspective regarding every single person as a human being, it just doesn't work. Not all Germans were bad; not all of them were good, either. The same can be said for all of us, including those in the Polish resistance. I didn't walk away from this taking the main Jewish character's encounter with the Polish resistance group as a rule-of-thumb. The anti-Semitism was not representative of every partisan (take the Bielski brothers, for instance), just with the group he happened to fall in with. It's plausible.There were plenty of Nazi-compliant Germans portrayed here. Perhaps not to an excessive degree in our heroes and heroines, but with them being the crux of the story, they were presented to us in a way that would make us want to root for them and pity their circumstances, or understand their reactions to certain situations, whether we agreed with them or not.The action sequences and filming in general was very well done. This is definitely among the rankings of Band of Brothers and The Pacific, in my humble opinion. Very well done.

...and I have seen them all. I know that this film deserves an intelligent review but I am unable to do so, having just drenched my emotions in 4 captivating hours of this amazing work. Excellent direction, editing, sound, cinematography, acting, and screenplay. This film is so important toward understanding the basic premise that war kills humans on both sides, that all involved suffer, that politicians espousing war generally lie about its necessity, (except in self-preservation defenses) every high school student should see it. Instead of video games that glorify war, social science educators need to show young people that war is not the lovely heroic adventure army recruiters and history books paint. It is graphic, brutal, destructive, painful, and horrible in every sense. Clint Eastwood produced a film years back that took us into the Japanese soldier's psyche, and this so perfectly expresses the complexities of the lives of German soldiers and citizenry. What makes Generation War stand out is that it also looks at anti-semitism from every conceivable angle-the Germans who stole their apartments and cheered The Fuhrer; the Ukrainians who joined the SS as prison guards; the Poles who hated Jews more than Germans despite being thrust into war because of them. It showed duty to country as machinated by informing on Jews, and then facing the karma of being the victim in the same game, which was symbolic of how we are all victims even when we think we are waging war for some bizarre vision of a nationalistic utopia. War like death makes cowards of us all, makes losers of all involved.

I ordered this Blu Ray on Friday Jan. 16. With two day shipping they said delivery on Sunday Jan. 18. To my surprise I received it on Saturday Jan.17 about 36 hours after I ordered it. Now for this item. It's a story of five friends in their early 20's in World war 2 Germany. Three guys and two girls. Three parts about 90 minutes each. The sound is German speaking with English Subtitles. If you can accept that setup that's half the battle. The Subtitles keep up with the talking and is accurate with the translation. Another point is the movie jumps between the five characters so you do need to be patient and pay attention. The Military Scenes of the German Army are some of the best I've ever seen as far as look and detail. The action scenes do have a "Saving Private Ryan" feel to it. I do recommend this for war movie and history fans. I would also compare the vibe with the movie "Downfall" another good movie of the time. One little detail about the movie I did notice (no more spoiling after this) is the SS personnel do wear the skull emblem on their headwear but no "SS" on their collar insignia. Anyone who sees this after me if you have an answer why please let us know. Overall a good movie and worth the money.

Ok I finally received the film today and so far i watched part one.This series is amazing so far i am so glad i brought this. If anyone is looking for some world war 2 films to add to their collection generation war is a must have.Film wise it looms great playing on a hdtv though a ps3 or blue ray player. The set and battle scenes is amazing to watch. (In a small way i think the battle scenes may be better than band of brothers. ) The acting is nice it draws you into how the germans felt back then.Next i want to explain is the historical aspec . (I havent seen all of it yet so my review is based off the first part.) I love world war two this film so far is historically accurate. The events between the five friends are true to what some individuals went through durng the time. And they show quite alot of detail during tactics that german soilders did during battle.Im going to.stop my review here because i can go on and on even though ive only seen one out of three parts. Dont hesitate buy this if you want something to watch or if your a history lover their are drama, funny, action and adventure throughout this film.