Historical documentary films thread

[Zixinus]

Can anybody comment on Adam Curtis's "The Power of Nightmares" and its coverage of the origins of Al-Quaida?

[weemadando]

Can anybody comment on Adam Curtis's "The Power of Nightmares" and its coverage of the origins of Al-Quaida?

It's fantastic. A very good commentary on how the West helped to create and sustain AQ, not just in terms of it's actual origins, but also in terms of it's presence in the Western zeitgeist.

[Darmalus]

On my birthday I was given a box set of DVDs called "War in the 20th Century" and while the visuals are good, it is rather sparse on facts or explanation and seems to only cover the highlights, making it all feel a bit disconnected. They may not have been the best, but they did give me a taste, and I would like more.

Can anyone recommend a good documentary on either of the World Wars? If you know of any, I would also enjoy an well made documentaries of other modern wars.

[Sea Skimmer]

Battlefield is great for WW2, about as good as any video documentary is going to be in all reality I think. Though the third series of it is randomly on the Vietnam War, before shifting back to WW2. Each part is basically split in half, with one part talking about specific weapons and tactics, and then the other the actual course of the battle fought. Its all archival footage, or else CGI maps. No reenactments as far as I can tell, though I have not seen the newer series. Heavily US-British centric, but what do you expect from something made for the BBC? The World at War is fairly good, also US-British centric but it has a number of interviews with veterans filmed in the 1960s and 70s interspaced including some Germans.

[Big Orange]

BBC 2's more recent 20th Century Battlefields is also recommended but almost as Anglo-centric as Battlefield, the battles are presented with abstract CGI, while the Snows are informative and infectiously enthusiastic presenters. The first episode is the best where they cover the Battle of Amiens in 1918, with the British Empire using recognisably modern combined arms tactics against Germany's feared Stosstruppen.

Another good documentary from Channel 4 is Gladiators: Back From the Dead where the skeletal remains of six gladiators have been unearthed in York, England - the gladiator combatants included a lightly armed horseman who was a former aristocrat and a seasoned swordsman with his ankles bound with iron rings. The show is somewhat similar in tone to silly fun like World's Deadliest Warriors only it's a lot less retarded and has genuinely creepy dramatic reconstructions. For Brits, the documentary is available here.

[Jade Falcon]

I second The World at War.

Another good one, perhaps less well known was made in the late 90's - early 2000's, I'm not sure exactly when.

It was by the respected historian Lawrence Rees.

Named "Auschwitz, the Nazis and the Final Solution". It spanned six episodes, there's a part of the first episode. Unfortunately the guy who uploaded it didn't bother with the subtitles in the relevant sections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6jnawYwm3E

This, despite the title didn't just focus on Auschwitz but on other camps as well, as well as looking into details of the Holocaust as carried out in places like Romania, France and even Jersey.

Another one from the same historian was The Nazis:A Warning from History.

[Big Orange]

I've recommended those Laurence Rees documentaries earlier on this thread. Also is anybody seeing BBC2's The Normans which has started earlier this week?

[fgalkin]

I apologize for the necro, but the "Great War" documentary, which Stas mentioned in the opening post is now up on Youtube with English subtitles. The quality of translation is pretty poor (it looks like a machine translation of the transcript), but you can understand what is being said, even if it's all in broken English.

Here is the first video of the first episode.



Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Big Orange]

I'm recently getting into BBC 2's Ancient Worlds (presented by historian Richard Miles) a six part documentary that presents a overview of human civilization based around the Middle East and Mediterranean: the second episode that was on this evening (18th Nov) was primarily about the Phoenician seafarers, Judaic kingdoms, early Greeks, and Neo-Assyrian Empire around 1000-800 BC.

[fgalkin]

So far in Russian only, but I think someone will make subtitles sooner or later. It's out on DVD, which ought to have English subtitles, too (or will in the nearest future).

Look for new series on Youtube and elsewhere; like I said, subtitles should come soon.
Episode 1: Barbarossa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if5vfU4VLFU (1 out of 5 fragments, look in the same channel)
Episode 2: Battle of Moscow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqkNW3oSMtU (1 out of 5 fragments, look in the same channel)

There's 8 episodes in total. They cover the following events: 1941 attack and German offensive until autmn, battle of Moscow, siege of Leningrad, battle of Stalingrad, battle of Kursk, operation Bagration, Russian offensive from Soviet border to Germany and finally battle of Berlin.

The old links are dead, but fortunately, the series has been translated into English for the Hitler Channel, you can watch it here. Sadly, it has been edited to make space for commercials, and each episode is missing some 5 minutes, including some of the technical bits, biographies, etc.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Vaporous]

"Frederick and the Enigma of Prussia", from the BBC. It's a pretty good, if short, look at Fredericks reign and the way it was used for propaganda purposes by the Nazi's. It's hosted by Christopher Clark, who wrote the excellent Iron Kingdom.

[Agent Sorchus]

The old links are dead, but fortunately, the series has been translated into English for the Hitler Channel, you can watch it here. Sadly, it has been edited to make space for commercials, and each episode is missing some 5 minutes, including some of the technical bits, biographies, etc.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Link to a translation of the cut content of this documentary series for those who want to see what was left out. Certainly not a perfect translation, but there it is for the curious.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I figured since we have a book recommendation thread that a documentary thread could be useful too.

I'll start with the two I own:

Crusade in the Pacific

This one seems like a contemporary piece about the War in the Pacific part of World War Two. Or very early post-war at the newest. Its all in black and white, and the commentary sounds like a typical 40's/50's style of talking. Not the most detailed one out there, but it was somewhat easy to get (at least a few years back) and is at least a good look at the Pacific War overall.

Second one is:

World War Two Battlefront

Not a new one either, but newer than Crusade for sure. This one covers the majority of the major battles of all the fronts of World War Two (with the notable exception of the Italian Front if I remember correctly...its been a while). Gives good overviews of the battles, from France (including Dunkirk) to Iwo Jima. Still not very detailed, but a good place to start in learning about this time-period.
*************

So...anyone else have recommendations? I personally can't speak any language other than English and a small smattering of German, so foreign language ones will go over my head. And if the ones I put up are horrible, then please, don't hold back. Don't want to recommend bad docs after all.

(and if this thread needs to be moved, feel free to do so Mods)

[K. A. Pital]

The Historical Doc film thread was just a few threads below on the first page. I merged 'em for you, Skywalker_T-65. Still try to at least scroll the first page to see if there's another thread dedicated to the subject. You might be surprised.

[Skywalker_T-65]

...whoops...sorry about that. This is what happens when I rush to post something...

[Spice Runner]

For anyone interested in the history of the Indian Subcontinent I would recommend "Bharat Ek Khoj" a historical documentary based upon the book "Discovery of India" by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and narrated by actor Roshan Seth. This documentary explores the five thousand years of Indian history in fifty three 50 minute narratives telling a story from various important historical events from all over the Indian subcontinent.

This documentary was originally shown on Indian public television during the early 90's. The acting and settings and music really takes you into each covered time period and locale setting. I think they really did a good job in conveying many details in the history of India in this documentary.

Unfortunately the language is in Hindi and Urdu but I believe the DVD is available with english subtitles


Bharat Ek Khoj Indian historical documentary