Victory at Sea (A&E Documentary Set)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: B- Film: A-
When most people think of
the United States involvement in WWII they typically think of the famous land
battles that took place. It is
partially due to the fact that TV and film have been devoted to recreating
these historic events, but the battles at sea had a huge impact on the success
at defeating enemy forces. Victory at Sea is a landmark
documentary from 1952, which compiled literally thousands of hours of footage
from all over the world in order to achieve a chronicled log of the battles at
sea.
Part of its importance
lies in the fact that it does not solely rely on U.S. footage, but also that of
enemy and allied forces from the war. Victory at Sea garnered the Emmy
Peabody award for its achievement and excellence, which it finally makes its
debut on the DVD format for its 50th anniversary. The thousands of hours were cut down to 26
episodes broken down as follows:
Disc One
Design for War
The Pacific Boils Over
Sealing the Breach
Midway is East
Mediterranean Mosaic
Guadalcanal
Rings Around Rabaul
Disc Two
Mare Nostrum
Sea and Sand
Beneath the Southern Cross
Magnetic North
The Conquest of Micronesia
Melanesian Nightmare
Disc Three
Roman Renaissance
D-Day
Killers and the Killed
The Turkey Shoot
Two If By Sea
Battle For Leyte Gulf
Return of the Allies
Disc Four
Full Fathom Five
The Fate of Europe
Target Suribachi
The Road to Mandalay
Suicide For Glory
Design For Peace
Each segment remains in
its original full-frame black & white and still has many of the scratches
that give it the authentic look. All of
the audio is stereo-boosted Dolby Digital 2.0 and has all the blemishes that
can be expected for such a dated program and source. The episodes are narrated by Leonard Graves, but there is also an
introduction by Peter Graves from NBC, who discusses some detail before the
episodes begin. There is no relation
between Leonard Graves and Peter Graves though. This collaboration for this DVD took place between NBC, who
originally aired the program and the History Channel, which released this DVD
through A&E. The entire program
stretches around 11 1/2 hours without extras, which include the introductions
before each episode and make for an extensive feature documenting the
significance of our involvement at sea.
Another nice attribute of
this box set is the fact that the discs are kept in the thin packs, which make
the 4 disc set more compact for easy storing.
Libraries and any serious history buff will enjoy what A&E has done
with a classic documentary from the vaults of NBC. Perhaps this will serve as a blueprint for future releasing of
other archival material of other wars and important historic events.
- Nate Goss
