The Civil War Commemorative Documentary Collection:
The 150th Anniversary (Mill Creek
Entertainment DVD Set)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: C
The
American Civil War, one of America's
bloodiest wars, it was not fought in another country nor an invading foreign
army but with itself and its own people. Years before Abraham Lincoln became President,
the Northern and Southern States argued on the issue of federal authority and
the future expansion it's country and slavery, but after receiving no
conclusion the South decided to secede from the Union.
And what thought was to last only a few
months turn into a 4-year war. A war to reunite a divided
house, the battles that were fought, victories and
incalculable losses and its people will not soon forget the sacrifices
both Confederate and Union soldiers made.
The
latest of many home video releases on the subject is this new commemoration of
the 150th anniversary of one of America's
most historical war over freedom, liberty and human rights from Mill Creek
Entertainment. While not the first nor
the last great American struggles, it had one of the greatest influences
on its country and its people; if one single battle was lost we would have
ended up a very different nation. It tells the story of the battles
between the troops, to conditions they faced, to the strategies between
both North and South generals. While the South fought for their 'rights' to
slavery which they claimed the Union had a
'duty' to protect, the North, the more industrialized states believed
differently and that a nation under slavery would eventually compromise a
nation’s integrity. This commemoration
includes the life and death of soldiers in the Armies, battles at the Potomac, Atlanta and Chickamauga.
It also tells the history of the
Civil War, with a personal diary from a Confederate Soldier, and who
Abraham Lincoln was and how he reunited a nation.
If you
like American history this film is a great one to add to your collection. Various
narrators tell the history, the story, and the lives of the
Civil War through large-scale reenactments, old films and movies, and pictures.
While talking on the life of soldier in
the Civil War relied a bit too much on the reenactments and eventually got
boring (it might have well just been an audio track), it could of used
more things like equipments, maps and topographies to describe paths and
routes of the armies and the reasons for it's successes or failures in battle,
but the rest of the film was fine and it used various historical archival
films and pictures telling both sides of the War as well as interesting
facts about it and significant people in the war.
- Ricky Chiang
