Tl;dr-Decent coverage of Europe, great footage, some serious, head- scratching errors made in the already sparse coverage of the Pacific
Overall, a decent coverage of the high points of the war, especially in Europe, though it is by no means unbiased as some have suggested. The footage is great, with a good deal of it either not ever seen or rarely seen before. The color, while it can be a bit jarring since the originals were black and white, I think adds a sense of realness, that this horrible thing we call World War II actually happened in our world, and not in some other, colorless alternate universe. I watched the English version narrated by Martin Sheen on Netflix.
I did learn some interesting things about the war in Europe, especially about some of the events that happened in France and with the Free French Forces (which makes sense for a French documentary). But this is far from the best WWII documentary ever.
My main complaint is it's treatment of the war in the Pacific. Not just because it is so short (though it is, nothing is mentioned of the Pacific until the end of episode three of a six part series), but because of blatant factual errors made in both the text appearing on screen and in the narrative (and also because I tend to gravitate towards the Pacific theater, being the son of a naval aviator).
The two biggest that jumped out at me were first, when discussing the Battle of Midway, as the narrator begins talking about the Japanese launching their strike on Midway, on the screen "June 7th, 1942" flashes in big, white letters, while the actual assault on Midway began on June 3rd (Midway time). The episode also gets some of the sequence of events during the course of the battle wrong, but these errors are less noticeable.
Second, was in discussing the Guadalcanal campaign, the narrator refers the the first planes to land on Henderson Field as "the Black Sheep Squadron," while the assortment of Allied aircraft operating from Henderson field during the early parts of the battle for Guadalcanal were actually known as the "Cactus Air Force." While the VMF-214 Black Sheep were indeed a squadron that fought in the Solomon's Campaign, and even flew out of Guadalcanal for a short time (though they mostly flew out of airfields on other islands), they were not even formed until over a year after the original landings on Guadalcanal.
These are errors that could have been easily corrected by consulting with a historian of the Pacific war (or even with an amateur history buff with an interest in that theater). Why this simple step was not taken by an obviously professional group of documentary filmmakers is beyond me.
Overall, a decent coverage of the high points of the war, especially in Europe, though it is by no means unbiased as some have suggested. The footage is great, with a good deal of it either not ever seen or rarely seen before. The color, while it can be a bit jarring since the originals were black and white, I think adds a sense of realness, that this horrible thing we call World War II actually happened in our world, and not in some other, colorless alternate universe. I watched the English version narrated by Martin Sheen on Netflix.
I did learn some interesting things about the war in Europe, especially about some of the events that happened in France and with the Free French Forces (which makes sense for a French documentary). But this is far from the best WWII documentary ever.
My main complaint is it's treatment of the war in the Pacific. Not just because it is so short (though it is, nothing is mentioned of the Pacific until the end of episode three of a six part series), but because of blatant factual errors made in both the text appearing on screen and in the narrative (and also because I tend to gravitate towards the Pacific theater, being the son of a naval aviator).
The two biggest that jumped out at me were first, when discussing the Battle of Midway, as the narrator begins talking about the Japanese launching their strike on Midway, on the screen "June 7th, 1942" flashes in big, white letters, while the actual assault on Midway began on June 3rd (Midway time). The episode also gets some of the sequence of events during the course of the battle wrong, but these errors are less noticeable.
Second, was in discussing the Guadalcanal campaign, the narrator refers the the first planes to land on Henderson Field as "the Black Sheep Squadron," while the assortment of Allied aircraft operating from Henderson field during the early parts of the battle for Guadalcanal were actually known as the "Cactus Air Force." While the VMF-214 Black Sheep were indeed a squadron that fought in the Solomon's Campaign, and even flew out of Guadalcanal for a short time (though they mostly flew out of airfields on other islands), they were not even formed until over a year after the original landings on Guadalcanal.
These are errors that could have been easily corrected by consulting with a historian of the Pacific war (or even with an amateur history buff with an interest in that theater). Why this simple step was not taken by an obviously professional group of documentary filmmakers is beyond me.