Hi! I've recently started watching historical documentaries by buying them at Borders with my employee discount. Some of the titles I purchased were the BBC's War of the Century, about the Eastern Front, Japan's War in Colour, and I picked up PBS's The Medici's. I made a deal with my fiance saying that as long as I don't spend my paychecks I can spend all my tip money on what I want. Now on average I can get a new dvd every week or two. I also have a nice amount in credit at TLA video. For the moment I want to avoid big box sets say no more than 50-60 (pre discount) tops. I have the Civil War on tape, Lewis and Clark and the Way West are both for DVD rental. So I am looking for recs in various areas or you own if I missed an area. The best thing is with many of these docs they are quite long and really feel like I've gotten my moneys worth

Ancient World
Renaissence
Colonial Era
American Revolution (ESPEICALLY HERE)
Early American to the 19th century
17 th century Victorian Era- europe
Imperial Era
WWI and WWI

I know I am missing many more so PLEASE feel free to add. I really LOVE the time of the 18th centruy to WWI. Oh if they are long like two hrs plus the better :)

TIA

For WW2, THE WORLD AT WAR is absolutely essential, but it violates two of your stipulations: it's a big box set, and even at deeply-discounted online prices, it still costs close to double your limit of $50-60. But if you're only going to watch one WW2 docu, this is the one to watch. There's also a wonderful British set covering WW1, THE GREAT WAR, but it's another even more expensive box set with the added complication that it's in the PAL video format, and (I think) R2 to boot.

As for somewhat more affordable WW2 discs, what about Synapse's disc of TRIUMPH OF THE WILL? Or THE SORROW AND THE PITY?

Dave

A newer WWI doc for British TV (from about 3 years ago), THE FIRST WORLD WAR, is out on R1 DVD from Image. (DVD cover pic from Amazon)

It's 4 DVDs and list price is $40, and based on a Hew Strachan single volume of the same name.

Probably a better fit for his budget, and still a pretty good doc.


History Channel and PBS docs on DVD tend to usually be pretty expensive when I've looked at them; I usually just rent those from the local library, where they have a ton of those things.

TRINITY & BEYOND: THE ATOMIC BOMB MOVIE By Peter Kuran is a must. During the 70s Kuran made a hobby of researching which 1940s & 50s A-bomb & H-bomb tests had been filmed to the extent of learning where the negatives were archived. When these films were declassified in the 80s he began writing the Gov't to borrow and duplicate the original camera negatives. Trinity is a montage of these familiar stock footage images, only now they have crystal clarity that makes them appear to have been shot yesterday. Breathtaking! It's set for a reduxed version this month.

Well (my own horn being absolutely tooted), I highly recommend our WWII documentary STALINGRAD as well as the newly re-mastered version of our TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. Both are essential purchases regarding WWII.

STALINGRAD was aired on HDNET not long ago and was created for broadcast television (keeping this thread properly under the forum heading of NETWORK AND PREMIUM TELEVISION).