The World at War (TV series)

In resent years the documentaries about World War II have become a dime a dozen, most just rehashing information that was in other documentaries. But back in 1973 this series set the standard on how the true stories of the war should be told, and told well. To think that the whole war could be told in just 26 episodes is a little hard to believe, but with the talent that stands behind this series it couldn't be anything but award winning. Everything from the writing to the directing to the voice over narration by Sir Laurence Olivier, this is the most in depth examination of the war in Europe.
Through the use of archival footage from the Allies and Axis powers the story of World War II is told in a no holds barred realism. Two of the best things about this series is that 1) there are no re-enactments of battle scenes, all of the footage that you see is real and you see things happening just as the soldiers and civilians did, and 2) there are no professors or specialist talking about what had happened, all of the interviews are from people that were actually there at the time of the event. There are no punches pulled when it comes to the film that is used to tell the stories, the death and destruction of the human masses and the countries that they inhabited. With Olivier doing the narration his voice lends a haunting aspect that could not have been captured by any one else at that time in the 70s.
This is a powerful series and some of the images that are in the archival footage are a little unnerving, but this is what war is really like, its not pretty and the pictures will stay with you long after you've finished watching the show. Where this series was produced by a British film company it focuses more on the European involvement in the war, on the continent and in the Pacific, but it doesn't leave the American story out, it's just not the focal point. Through the footage that is used you get to see the lengths that man will go to against another man for the idea of racial purity, which to me is one of the most disgusting reasons that people use to kill another human being. This is definitely a must see for those people that are out there who must know all that they can about one of the most devastating and heroic times in the history of man.