At this point, you have to wonder if the History Channel should be prosecuted for war profiteering. Granted, their continuous Hitler-related programming has been educating the American people for over a decade now, and you can reliably turn the channel on and expect something of greater sophistication than the most recent Two and a Half Men, but it’s hard to think of an industry that owes its existence more to World War II than they do, with the possible exception of bomb shelters and Tom Brokaw’s general career. Nowhere is this dependence on war programming more evident than in their aptly named Ultimate Collections: World War II. Never before has one of the most momentous events in human history been so collectible.
The majority of this four-disc set (which is divided into two sections: The War in Europe and The War in the Pacific) is made up of episodes of an old 80s program entitled War Chronicles. Chronicles has the distinction of being perhaps the only show I’ve ever seen composed almost entirely of stock footage. Occasionally, this stock footage is interrupted by pictures of maps and a scholarly narrator by the name of Patrick O’Neal (who can’t help but remind you of Charles Gray’s expert criminologist from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), who’s constantly handing out lines like, ‘and that’s when our boys fought back’ with a deadening seriousness that could easily pass for camp in another television show. He talks throughout the entire program (indeed, just about the only other sound is that of gunfire and explosions), and provides the only real context for the endless volley of marching soldiers, giant guns firing, and overhead planes dive-bombing into the water that we’re shown. Really, if he wasn’t talking, we wouldn’t really have any idea what was going on, because guns going off in North Africa looks an awful lot like guns going off in Guadalcanal. Which is too bad, considering how specific this show is.
With the exception of the first episode we are shown (“The Greatest Conflict”, a Cliffnotes version of the war), each episode is devoted to a single battle or campaign, usually accompanied to warlike drum music. Anzio is covered here, as are the Phillippines, the Bulge, Okinawa, and several others. The focus in each one is the specifics of the battle, being the decisions of the commanding officers, the directions of troop movements, and the outcomes of various engagements. What you might otherwise read in a playbook of the war, basically. None of that Ken Burns letters home nonsense; this is straight up ‘they were here then’.
The set is concluded with a biography of Admiral Halsey, the commander of the Pacific fleet at the end of the war, which is a welcome respite from the long series of stock footage that we have just witnessed, but fairly typical for an episode of Biography. Family is interviewed, old photos are zoomed in on, and a man is eulogized. To be fair, he is not an unworthy subject to be included in this set, and the actions that he undertook are clearly worthy of the praise he receives here. But it does make for kind of an odd set.
But this set wasn’t created for me, nor was it created for anyone in my age group. It was created for the guys who watch the History Channel day after day, and who can’t get enough of wartime stock footage. And that’s great for those guys, but this isn’t a really a documentary for any one else. If you’re looking to bone up on your World War II history, check out any number of Stephen Ambrose books. But if you’re looking to see cannons go off for about six hours with only a minimum of context, go ahead and buy this set. It’s a good value.
DVD Bonus Features
None, unless you count the section on Halsey as a bonus.
"Ultimate Collections: World War II" is on sale August 25, 2009 and is rated NR. Documentary. Written and directed by Don Horan. Starring Patrick ONeal.
