Powerful

How sad is this?

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I missed the original TV broadcast, through not having a television set at the time, and although this was one of the first box-sets I've bought - about ten years ago - I'm only now finally getting to watch it. As I write, I'm only five episodes in, but I'm certain that my overall assessment won't change by the time I've watched the complete set.I also have to confess to having a personal interest in this period of history as my mother worked as a nurse in London, during The Blitz, which was covered in The Alone episode, in Disc Two. she'd talked of it as a great big adventure - she was still a teenager at the time - but watching that Alone episode tonight, alone, I had the odd sensation of wondering how close I came to not being born, given the number of casualties London suffered during the bombing. (My mother also got up close enough to shake JFK's hand, during the New Ross leg of his Irish visit, in 1963, but that's another story entirely. And, no, her name isn't Zelig!)As a history buff, of course, I'm lapping up the archive film, and the brilliantly written and edited narrative, but what makes the series special for me is the people, the cast of thousands: the faces on the admiring throngs of Germans, young and old, particularly the women and young boys; the contemporary interviews with Londoners; the London woman, whose home suffered during the bombing, who was yet to be convinced by Churchill; the faces of the Russian civilian defenders; the frost-bitten German soldiers, and colleagues who froliced naked in Russian snows; but famous faces, also, such as Russian Foreign Minister, Molotov, defiant throughout his Berlin visit who, Hitler's interpreter tells us - as if the film hadn't already told us - that he wasn't one to mince his words.Last, but decidedly not least, the brilliant narration by Laurence Olivier - his finest hour? - strikes the perfect tone throughout: defiant, also, when it needs to be, but melancholic, and intermittently optimistic, also.I'd been worried that the series might have been too Brit-centric - that most of the eulogies I've read have been by Brits; it remains to be seen, of course, whether that is the case. Inevitably, you won't be able to please all of the people all of the time, but what I can say is that, as a historical document, and as a work of art, it is unquestionably a triumph, and one which I intend to revisit, many times over.

Many, many documentaries have been made about WW2, but NONE approach its completeness, nor its thoroughness in explaining the War in its entirety.It is a HUGELY ambitious undertaking, in its attempt to take the average viewer, not just historians, through the conflict step by step, decision by decision, battle by battle.It succeeds BRILLIANTLY in all of its endeavors, and as other reviewers have said, a rating of TEN does not do it justice.It painstakingly gathers archival footage, documents, letters....from all over the world and puts them back together in a way that belies the monumental effort involved.If you watch this, then "Victory at Sea", which focuses on the War in the Pacific, and includes a magnificent musical score, you will know more about WW2 than 99% of the people on the planet.I have run out of superlatives for this series. There has been nothing like it before, and nothing like it sense.It should be viewed as a an international treasure, kept forever available by some means, for all future generations. I can think of no other cinematic creation with its importance.

... about such historical and tragical events, but the role of Russians quiet depreciated and distorted (especially in parts related to Poland). And this is not astonishing issue, because it is English movie. Four episodes about Russian front out of 26 total. This is quite ridiculous proportion, comparing to how many deeds were done on Russian front. But nevertheless these facts, highly recommended for watching, because this movie is a most realistic among English and even more so American films ever.

The only thing I have to add to all the excellent reviews that appear here already, is to marvel that this series was made at all. It was produced by the ITV (The channel that first aired that dead eyed simpering wazzock Simon Cowel), which isn't a public service broadcaster, but a channel that at the time received all it revenue from advertising. Add to that the fact that this series was originally shown on Sunday lunch time, back to back with a heavy review of the past weeks politics, Week-End World, with the lovely lispy Bwyan Waldron, (any show that has Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride for it's theme can't be all bad), and you can understand that we live in different times. Men in those days, on a Sunday, read the papers in the morning, then a nice heavy documentary series comprising the second world war in 26 hours, a touch of political debate, then a swift pint or 2, roast beef and fall asleep in the arm chair. Makes you wonder if we haven't gone wrong somewhere, men now a days of the age who would have done what I describe above, middle ages dads, are too busy trying to pretend that they are still 20, wearing cargo shorts, and playing xbox.