In 1944, the Allies land in Italy, but their advance is blocked by the Wehrmacht. Meanwhile, the Red Army, continuing its inexorable advance to the west, finally reaches Berlin.
The Russians continue to resist at Stalingrad, and the Eastern Front is stalled. In the North Atlantic, the Allies make progress in reducing the threat from German U-boats.
As America joins the war and begins to re-arm, Hitler attacks the USSR to complete his domination of Europe before the U.S. can intervene.
Here are some well-known faces from Sundance over the years, as they brought their early movies to the festival.
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Title: Apocalypse: The Second World War (2009)
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| Series cast summary: | |||
| Mathieu Kassovitz | ... | Narrator 6 episodes, 2009 | |
| Martin Sheen | ... | Narrator (english version) 6 episodes, 2009 | |
Apocalypse: The Second World War(2009) is a six-part French documentary about the Second World War. The documentary is 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. Written by My50ho
"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.