Vovion Over the course of the 26 episodes it covers the battles, the politics, the economics, the cultural effects and most important - the graft of the men serving both sides as they fight for increasingly fading values.What's particularly impressive is how well it holds up after almost half a decade. The footage used, while repeated at times, gives the viewer a clear guide of the people involved and what's going on while Redgrave delivers his perfectly pitched commentary. It's particularly appreciated that they managed to get some of the civilians and soldiers who actually experienced all of this, to weigh in at certain points for added humanity. Listening to them speak candidly about trench life, or running into barbed wire while having machine guns blazing at them, certainly brings an unquantifiable respect for those who fought, as the horror unfolds on the screen.The only thing I would have liked added to the documentary is an episode covering each country post-war. This would have been a more fitting end to a series that shows, quite clearly, that there were no true victors in 1918.

dkane180 I stumbled across this documentary series around 2005 when my interest in the first world war was blossoming due to another WWI documentary, aptly titled, The First World War. I was enthralled with this series from the minute I laid eyes on it and continue to watch it over and over again. Sir Michael Redgrave's hypnotizing narration and the eerily haunting score make for the perfect nightcap while relaxing on a lazy weekend or at night before bed. The personal accounts of the soldiers and the memoirs of statesmen and generals add different perspectives on the cataclysmic events which unfold from 1914 to 1918. Anyone who has the slightest interest in WWI should put this series atop a must watch list.Criticizing this series feels like I am insulting my own child or spitting on my mother but for the integrity of my review I will cough up a few lines of what I would have liked to see more of in this particular series. First I would have enjoyed a little more information and background on the tensions and issues surrounding Austro - Hungary and the tensions with Serbia leading up to and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Second, a little more of the French, Russian, Austrian and Italian perspective because in my humble opinion it focuses to directly on the British and Germans. Out of 26 episodes I think a few more could have been devoted to these other views of the battlefield, the home front and political landscape.After watching all 26 episodes and the 2 bonus episodes I was thoroughly impressed and will be forever be left with a new understanding of The Great War. Since I watched The Great War I have tracked down as many documentaries and books concerning that war as I can get my hands on and even some of the other WWI documentaries which are considered well done do not come close to the epic event which is "The Great War". This series awakened a thirst for knowledge I was unaware I had. That is exactly what a well made documentary series should do.

rjcroton This documentary is possibly the best documentary series ever made. If I could, I would give it an extra star, so it could be the Pershing of documentaries. The fact it beats The World at War and other stunningly epic documentaries shows how incredible it really is.As a man who has spent his life thinking on history, and could potentially spend a long professional life doing it, all I can say is how refreshing the series is. Unlike other documentaries, it has no platitudes or ahistorical biases, it presents the conflict accurately. Startlingly accurately, with its amazing black and white footage and interviews.Not only that, but Sir Michael Redgrave topples all narrating rivals in his performances. Forever now will I associate his voice with the conflict, strong, unique and filled with power.It's the detail that shocks. The emphasis on context, too. By presenting it so historically and professionally, it puts the conflict in its proper place in history and in society. I've watched newer documentaries, and have had to study the literature extensively for my higher education, but never was I more moved than watching this documentary.Please, seek this series out when you can. It may never be released on Blu-Ray. In-fact, I'd buy a DVD player just for watching this series again, and I'd keep a compatible TV too, just in case. If I was off to a desert island, this would probably be the series I'd take.

Markhoni I first saw this series when it was repeated by the BBC in the early Seventies on Sunday afternoons. I watched several of the episodes with my grandmother whose beloved brother died at the Battle of the Somme. It is one of the main reasons that I am interested in the First World War, why I became a historian and why I take groups of schoolchildren to the battlefields every year. After years of claiming it was 'out of date' and 'unshowable' the BBC have released it on video/DVD and shown it on TV on Saturday evenings. As I started to watch the first episode the hairs on the back of my neck stood up-the portentous music,Sir Michael Redgrave's melifluous narratiion, the superbly literate script by John Terraine and Correlli ('Bill') Barnett, the archive footage (even if much of it is used out of context)-it was all as I remembered it. This series provided the blueprint for many others, especially 'The World at War'. It is a timeless classic which should be seen by anyone with the remotest interest in history or a moving story superbly told. Interestingly the series was masterminded by John Terraine and, as such, embodies the then unfashionable 'revisionist' view that not all the generals (especially Field Marshal Haig)were blundering idiots who sent men cruelly to their deaths but were limited by the available technology into fighting grim attrition battles as the only means of victory. This now pretty much the academic orthodoxy-40 years after this classic series was made!