dimitrios karagiannis Imagine if someone was making a documentary for the First Civil War without even mentioning Belgium ,what kind of documentary would that be deemed? Now the producers managed to achieve no mention of Greece, whilst having the opportunity to do so for 10 episodes!And no, we are not talking about interpretations of facts (the Armenian/Pontian genocide is 'disputed' according to the authors) , we are talking about just mentioning Greece (!) despite the fact that Greece participated in the First World WarIf someone didn't know anything about the First World War ,this documentary gives the impression that Greece didn't participate at all!!That's an utter disgrace and the explanation is simple.Either the producers did that one deliberately , or they are incompetentAnd whilst the documentary is in general well produced , they managed to fail spectacularly by NOT including one of the main countries who participated in the First World War

dbborroughs One of a small handful of great documentaries on the Great War. This series of ten episodes nicely explains the war simply and directly. It also manages to cover a variety of other subjects that most other documentaries and books on the subject don't, or example the fighting in the Italian mountains. I'm a student of the First World War and I find it hard to find good films on the subject. Most are dull affairs that rehash the same old facts and figures using a limited number of film clips. Here the filmmakers have broadened their net covering a wide variety of subjects, but also using footage of many of the locations shot today. The result is a series that makes the war very current and alive, no longer is it a far away and long ago war, but one that happened in places that still exist. Its magical. Its so good that I found that after the second episode I was rationing the episodes out since I didn't want the mere ten to run out too quickly. This is a must see not only for people wanting to know about the war but also wanting to know about how we got to today.

John Esche I was eagerly looking forward to this ten episode, four DVD set (8 hours and 23 minutes in all) based on the claims on the box of previously unseen film footage and newly accessible archival material from Central and Eastern European sources and most especially the ties to a book by a "professor" (presumably of history - Hew Strachan). Unfortunately, as assembled (in an initially promising chronological format) by BBC 4, there is little or no pretense of objective history and far too many omissions and distortions in the service of a strictly British viewpoint. The over all effect, despite copious quotations from participants on all sides, is like a history of World War II's "D-Day" told entirely from Field Marshall Montgomery's aide de camp's viewpoint.The vast majority of film footage (mostly acknowledged - but not some of the obvious naval model work; possibly from faked "newsreels"?) is from 1920's and 30's film reconstructions and fictionalizations mixed with color footage of locales as they look today. While there is interesting period movie footage, it is almost all behind the lines and of close-up non-action scenes and TV cameras scanning across still photos.One of the single most desired sequences, the final newsreel footage of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand leaving the Serajevo City Hall moments before his assassination, is only shown in the abbreviated and already much circulated cut. The reasons for Franz Ferdinand - a fascinating, complex figure given very short shrift here (and his Sophie) being in Bosnia that day (their 14th Wedding Anniversary) are totally omitted - as are any understanding of his reigning Uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph at the head of a great multi-cultural empire or the reasons the majority of Moslem Bosnia was opposed to Eastern Orthodox Serbian pretensions over their territory since both broke away from the shrinking Ottoman Empire.Once the war itself started (you will be hard pressed to understand why from the sketchy story told here), the British documentary almost entirely ignores the original combatants but focuses on the British and their conflict with Austria's unsubtle allies in Germany.Because of the British confrontations (to their considerable discomfort) with the Ottoman Turk, much time is spent on this front, allowing at least rudimentary (and that's about all) discussion of the source of the continuing Armenian question in Episode Four, but even here, there is almost no followable line of the way the Ottoman wobbled in and out of the war until finally committing to the Central Powers following the second Russian Revolution in 1917, removing them from the war. There is even less discussion of impact of the tenuous Japanese alliance with the Russians and British springing from the settlement of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.A far better look at the complexity of World War I (although neither attempt or claim to be as complete in the material covered), with far more actual footage from the period in question is available in several documentaries ranging from Hollywood GOES TO WAR to WORLD WAR I IN COLOR. This Anglophile attempt at history is only for the dedicated Anglophile looking for entertainment pretending to be serious, not the serious amateur historian who will see too many holes spoiling the fun.

Robert J. Maxwell I guess I'll simply echo UnionMan's sentiments. It's a well-balanced presentation of what used to be called The Great War before we learned to number them.It covers all aspects of the war and pulls no punches.There is footage here that you are guaranteed not to have seen before. A distant column of cavalrymen ride their horses along a dirt road. A huge explosion covers the center of the column with a cloud of dust. The last part of the column rides around the smoke. When, finally, the dust clears we see the column has halted and is looking back at the debris, which includes a couple of smudgy black figures flat on the ground, one of them a thrashing horse.Personalities are explored and politics brought in just enough to illuminate the battles that form the centerpiece of the film. Enough for us to see the seeds of the next war being sown.The images are finely defined in crisp black and white. The motion is smoothed out and takes place in real time, adjusted for the change in camera speed since the early days of cinema.What a bitter thing war is. The film prompts one to wonder why we rush to embrace another one every twenty years or so.There will probably not be another documentary dealing with World War I that will be the equal of this one.