Apocalypse: The Second World War

2009

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
9| 0h30m| TV-PG| en| More Info
Released: 08 September 2009 Ended
Producted By: National Geographic
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.france.tv/france-5/apocalypse-la-2e-guerre-mondiale/
Synopsis

A six-part French documentary about the Second World War composed exclusively of actual footage of the war as filmed by war correspondents, soldiers, resistance fighters and private citizens. The series is shown in color, with the black and white footage being fully colorized, save for some original color footage. The only exception to the treatment are most Holocaust scenes, which are presented in the original black and white.

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Reviews

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Listonixio Fresh and Exciting
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Engelbert Franssen The second world war ensured tons of documentaries. The information about this topic is overwhelming, but of course you don't want to watch every documentary ever made. But if you don't have a clue where to start, or if you just want a very nice summery of the second world war, then this documentary is a must see in my opinion.The documentary shows the development of the second world war in a chronological and interesting way. It is narrated from a very objective point of view and therefore the educational level is very high. And the amount of topics is very broad, so you get introduced with every aspect of this heinous period. Due this fact you can orientate what you find interesting and you can search for more documentaries about specific topics later.The capture my opinion in a short sentence: "Please watch this amazing documentary"!
John Anderson Six 45-minute episodes does no justice to what was truly the most devastating Apocalypse in human history. But yes this is pretty good given the very limiting length constraint.I am writing this review however, mostly so I can rant about the disproportionate amount of time devoted (in this already extremely short documentary) to what the French did. France is often caricatured as having, in WW2, done little more than surrender immediately, ship out Jews while waiting to be liberated, and be forever angry at their liberators (especially for speaking English while in France). This caricature is however probably closer to the truth than what this documentary suggests. Example: one bit talked at length about the mythical French Resistance, then went on to show 3-second clips of resistance movements around the continent, e.g. in Yugoslavia, Norway, etc. This was quite risible, given that the Yugoslav Resistance successfully liberated Yugoslavia by themselves, while Albert Speer replied "What French Resistance?" when asked about it.Example: The French Resistance and De Gaulle are depicted as having liberated Paris, but really they were (for lack of a common English expression) ribbon-cutters claiming the credit for work done by their true liberators---the English-speakers. An astonishing fact cited by Andrew Roberts in The Storm of War is this: A greater number of Frenchmen bore arms for the Axis than for the Allies. A French schoolchild who watches this documentary will however get the wrong impression that France was nearly equal to Britain or even the US/USSR in the struggle against the Nazis.
R. Ignacio Litardo "Perfection is rare to find" is the favourite phrase of an aesthetic surgeon. This is just it.The text is superb. Informative, NEUTRAL, without concessions for any party, and with a subtler enough message of hope. The images are really unbelievable. Also unusual. If you think you've seen them all and docus on wars bore you, think again. Kassovitz's voice is just what's needed for the job: enthusiastic and yet dry enough so you get "just the facts". If you ever look for a good music equipments, when you read reviews you'll find that one of the best compliments writers do is: "doesn't get in between you and the music". You don't "notice" the direction, editor, the "author" who made this monumental work. Even with touchy topics like the Holocaust, they just deliver the facts. Their involvement is obvious, but they always give us the facts first. Whether you are cramming for a general education examination or if you want to be a bit less ignorant on probably the most relevant topic of the XX century, you'll find no better documentary. Engaging, painful to watch at times, showing us the consequences on the peasants and the "little people" as well as the general's feats and whims, this saga strikes the right balance at everything. From the Blitzkreig to the V2, from Normandie to the unlikely allies the Nazis got from the dominated Slav countries (and how they mistreated them for "not being Aryan", everything is here, and more. Even Hitler's madness. Just one example: him calling Churchill and Roosevelt "jewizizing" after another military setback. Surely history is staggering enough: the Islamists were one of the unlikely willful allies of the Nazis, "combating the common Zionist enemy".Words are not enough to describe the "thirst for nothingness" Hitler saw on the world, Japanese's pride, American altruism, British flame, the French way of failing so much, for so long, Italian's mistrust of government, Soviet power and blindness, German efficiency in devising the cruelest weapon (i.e. the mines with a "click") as the Berliner. performing yet another perfect rehearsal. If there's just one thing I'd have liked is less bias for the tiniest "heroic French action" completely irrelevant for the course of the war, and absent from any history manuals. Time being a scarce resource, it'd been useful to cover a bit more of the Pacific front, barely mentioned. It's also a bit Eurocentric in scope, but I suppose that's the price to pay. Nobody is perfect after all :(.Whatever is to be learned from wars must be here. Whatever can be learned is never enough, never too late, never enough. Churchill's famous prose give this documentary two of the most memorable moments, in which it was difficult for me not to cry. People may not learn, again. Yes, a documentary on such hay-necked topic can still do that to you.
Nicholas Rhodes A documentary potted history of WW2, the novelty here is that most of the film has been "colorized". The maker does not like to use this word and prefers to say "restored" but to all intents and purposes it is seeing the war in colour that makes it more gory and emotional. Explosions, bodies, speeches, ruins, bombs, it's all there and by the end of the sixth and last episode you are completely drained ! It is difficult to imagine how so much grief, damage disaster horror can be caused at the beginning by such a small number of people. Apparently, over 700 hours of film were examined before selecting the final product which is 6 x 52 minute episodes.

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