Editorial Review
Sir Jeremy Isaacs highly deserves the numerous awards for documentaries he has earned: the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, l'Ordre National du Mérit, an Emmy, and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His epic
The World at War remains unsurpassed as the definitive visual history of World War II.
The Second World War was different from other wars in thousands of ways, one of which was the unparalleled scope of visual documents kept by the Axis and Allies of all their activities. As a result, this war is understood as much through written histories as it is through its powerful images. The Nazis were particularly thorough in documenting even the most abhorrent of the atrocities they were committing--in a surprising amount of color footage. The World at War was one of the first television documentaries that exploited these resources so completely, giving viewers an unbelievable visual guide to the greatest event in the 20th century. This is to say nothing of the excellent, comprehensible narrative. Some highlights:
- A New Germany 1933-39: early German and Nazi documentation of Hitler's rise to power through the impending attack on Poland
- Whirlwind: the early British losses in the blitz in the skies over Britain and in North Africa
- Stalingrad: the turning point of the war and Germany's first defeat
- Inside the Reich--Germany 1940-44: one of the most fascinating documentaries that exists on life inside Nazi Germany, from Lebensborn to the Hitler Youth
- Morning: prior to Saving Private Ryan, one of the only unromanticized views of the Normandy invasion
- Genocide: this film is one of the most widely shown introductions to the Holocaust
- Japan 1941-45: although The World at War is decidedly focused more on the European theater, this is an important look into wartime Japan and its expansion--early 20th-century history that lead to Japan's role in World War II is superficial
- The bomb: another widely shown documentary of the Manhattan Project, the Enola Gay, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki
The World at War will remain the definitive visual history of World War II, analogous to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. No serious historian should be missing The World at War in a collection, and no student should leave school without having seen at least some of its salient episodes. Rarely is film so essential. --Erik J. Macki
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Customer Reviews
Dated but Authoritative 
2008-06-01
I remembered watching this program as a boy, and remembered it fondly. I had been looking around stores without luck when I checked Amazon and there it was!
I sat down and started watching it again, and as soon as I heard the theme music and Olivier's narration was immediately transported back in time.
This thorough history of WWII begins in the first episode with the rise of the National Socialist party in Germany in the 20's and 30's, then takes us through the Rhineland, Anschluss, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia and leaves us looking at Danzig.
The second episode takes us into Poland and the start of the war. Each phase of the war is discussed in detail as it navigates its way chronologically, episode by episode, through the entire conflict.
Sir Laurence Olivier's narration is excellent, as is the archival footage.
My only criticisms are directly due to the age of the series - some of the graphics that are used to dramatise explanations between footage (fairly rare) are now quite dated and almost comical. Also, because the series was made so soon after the war, the depiction of historical facts is tilted towards the allies - for instance there is no mention of the genesis of the practice of bombing cities - two or three german aircraft accidentally discharged their bomb loads over London in August 1940, which was an accidental contravention of Hitler's ban on attacking the capital. This led to British bombing of Berlin, and the whole thing escalated from there. (The Hardest Victory, RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War - Denis Richards, Hodder and Stoughton, London 1995 pp82, 83). Facts such as these are not mentioned in this series.
All in all, this series is an excellent historical record of WWII. If only someone could undertake a re-make on such an epic scale, now that many official secrets of the time are de-classified, and graphical technology has improved exponentially, it would be well worth the effort.
Highly recommended.
a mixed bag, but mainly good 2008-05-19
The strengths of this doc are the eyewitness interview accounts + the flim archive material... lots of insight given into what was happening in civilian populations. The coverage of the campaigns themselves are spotty at best, unless it's something like a full hr devoted to the British in Burma. Narration is of mixed quality with respect to analysis. The doc is so skewed towards a British perspective, that one would never quite understand the scale of US involvment without prior info. Omaha beach is given much less time than Dutch and German resistance groups. I may be reading something unintended into it, but there almost seems to be a somewhat grudging less than grateful British viewpoint of American contributions... as if there was a measure of inconvenience involved. Kinda strange. For sure there will be British helmets and berets clearly visisible in most liberation victory parades footage. I wouldn't consider this to be THE definitive documentary, but rather a comprehensive collection of extremely interesting/informative interviews and film clips. Well worth watching, but a mixed and selectively edited viewing experience.
Translations needed! 2008-05-10
This 30th Anniversary Edition of The World at War has been reviewed extensively at this site, and I agree with the majority of reviewers that this series is one of the greatest documentaries about World War II. However, I have to complain that translations are often wanting. For example, in the two-part bonus to the series on Disc 10, entitled The Final Solution, there are long stretches of archival footage of German-language speeches and documentaries that contain NO TRANSLATION into English. These sections of the series are a void to those viewers who do not speak German. The World at War series is an English-language production, but this bonus documentary, as wonderful as it is in other respects, fails to reach most of its audience when translations are not provided. It is frustrating to see and hear these stretches of documentary that are inaccessible to those of us who do not understand German.
It's great to have this on dvd at an incredible price 
2008-05-10
I watched this series on PBS in the seventies and was forever hooked! there has never been such a definitive work done on world war two as this, nor do I expect there will be in the near future. Sir Laurence Olivier's subperb narration guides you through almost every aspect of the most defining period of the twentith century.You can never grow weary of viewing this fine production as every time you view it, you will surley pick up on something you missed on the last viewing! All real, no phoney reenactments. A never ending history lesson.
Deadly... Dubbing 
2008-05-02
Most of the other reviewers have covered the high points and All together the series does a decent job of covering many of the highlights of the second world war. However, the incredibly oppressive use of dubbing to add explosions along with other repetitive, unnecessary and imminently distracting and mind numbingly false sound effects proves to be extremely detrimental to the experience of watching this series. Dubbing is often done on old reel footage from Big Two, however in this case the experience is so overwhelmingly oppressive and poorly executed that it strays to the obscene. For example in one scene there is a dog attempting to jump into the interior of a bomber and the dubbing "experts" saw fit to add a loud whining sound on loop over the video.
As others have said, the history is good, the narration is illuminating but the sound is so bad that it detracts from the whole experience to teeth grating and ultimately the diminishing of the message with a overriding sense of falseness that this addition of sounds that are not only unnatural but dishonest to the material. Adding to the shoddy sound is the Journalistic nature of the discourse. This is to say that they are only talking about certain portions of the war that are of "interest" to them and many of the things they cover (or more often don't cover at all) leave a somewhat inaccurate impression of the actual war. I'd recommend the BBC history of world war II or simply "The War" much more over this collection.
Excellent!!! 2008-06-27
It's a very well made documentary and everyone who is interested in history shouldn't pass this one up.
The Truth and False about this Documentary set 2008-06-20
I watched this set over and over.
Honestly it is the best in the market and I encourage any one who didn't know about WWII is to start with this.
It collects many newsreels from German Allied sources and builds the entire documentary narration on it! And some times vice versa!
The viewer must note that it doesn't tell the truth all the time; some times they hide important facts; ignore the achievement and greatness of certain people, events and some time it focus on certain unnecessary issues.
Something valuable in it as it shows interview with Nazi leader - generals and high ranking officers whom all died by now. And you feel that their statement is censored to save the purpose of the film and the allied point of view, some of the interviews with normal citizens from Germany are not fair as they are biased and non accountable.
The Sequence of even are nit the great even it is very good and very good quality.
If you wondering what happen in WWII with comprehensive good quality while you drink cup of tea I advice you to watch this set.
THE WORLD AT WAR 2008-06-12
The film is very good, as real as it gets. A complete history of WWII.
Great documentary, not always accurate. 2008-06-11
As many other reviewers already stated this is a very good summary of WWII, looked at from a British perspective.
Keep in mind that the war is over after volume 7. The remaining volumes are reruns of interviews with some more details.
It was mentioned that at the start of the war The Netherlands capitulated after Rotterdam was bombed.
As far as I know from Dutch historical documents, The Netherlands capitulated before Rotterdam was bombarded, but the bombers were already on their way and the Nazis did not bother to call them back, thus adding another atrosity to their long list of crimes to humanity.
Later there is an interview with historian Stephen Ambrose, who feels that the US profited from the war, since the US lost relative few people and now had Western Europe and Japan under its influence. This justified the occupation of eastern Europe by the Soviet Union, not more then fair. Never mind that there was an agreement with Stalin that all occupied countries should have free elections after the war. This (PBS?)'expert' does not seem to understand that the Eastern European countries were brutally oppressed by Russia, while the western European nations were free democracies.
There are other more interesting interviews with e.g. Hitler's secretary and German and allied commanders. Also with regular soldiers and civilians from Germany, Russia and the occupied countries.
Also footage about live in the occupied countries (Holland, Poland) and Germany during the war.
Overall well worth buying, a good historical overview of the rise and fall of Hitler. Of great historical value for present and future generations.
Just the best documentary on WW2 2008-06-07
This is perhaps the best documentary ever put together on WW2. It combines background information with in depth analysis of just about every major action complete with eyewitness testimony and accounts.
Highly recommended.
