In 1898, the US found itself at war with the country of Spain.  The Spanish-American War lasted 113 days and showed that the United States was an international power with effective armed forces.  Even though it had important consequences for the US, it's a forgotten war today.   Sandwiched between to more important conflicts in the history of the States, the Civil War and WW I, it is hardly mentioned in schools today.  The History Channel has tried to fill this void by creating a 2 ½ hours documentary that tells the story of this confrontation:  The Spanish-American War, First Intervention.  Unfortunately, though there is a lot of information contained in this show, the use of poor actors, mock vintage newsreels, and a non-anamorphic image makes this a hard show to enjoy.

This conflict that thrust the US onto the world stage was the most popular war that the country ever engaged in.  After seeing news reels portraying Spanish atrocities on the island of Cuba (many of them fabricated) and reading of the horrors of the Spanish occupation in Pulitzer's and Hearst's newspapers, the American people were ready to go to war.  The sinking of the USS Maine in a Cuban harbor was the final straw.  Though it was never shown to be caused by Spain (the official report said that a mine hit the ship and the Spanish claimed that it was spontaneous combustion in the coal storage rooms) a little thing like facts wasn't about to stop a country ready to go to battle.

This show tells the story of the Spanish-American War mainly through reenactments, but also uses interviews with historians and quotes from soldier's diaries, read by actors on screen.  It covers the Negro Buffalo Soldiers who played an important role in the war as well as the Rough Riders and Teddy Roosevelt.  The capture of the Philippines, the role of the Cuban resistance, and the technological advances that were used in the war are all covered is some detail.

There is a lot of interesting minutia that's revealed too.  It is interesting to note that the US, though they provoked the war, was totally unprepared to fight it.  Ammunition was so scarce that the new volunteers who were taken into the Army weren't allowed to fire their weapons before going into combat.  The ships that carried the men from Tampa Florida to Cuba were converted cargo ships and they weren't adapted very well either.  There was only one toilet for each 1256 men, and they didn't think about how to land the horses once they got to Cuba, since they were landing on a beach with no docks, so they just pushed them overboard and hoped that they'd swim to shore.

Even though the content is interesting, this show is a chore to watch.  That is because of the way it's put together.  At the beginning they make a big deal over the fact that this was the first US war covered by movie cameras.  (This is only partially true.  There was actually very little footage shot of the men in Cuba and even less of the battles.  The vast majority of newsreel footage that claimed to come from Cuba actually consisted of reenactments done in New Jersey.  The show mentions that, but only briefly.)  They carry this 'early film footage' theme through out the show by making some of the reenactments look like they are really vintage silent movies.  This is accomplished by scratching up the prints, cutting out frames here and there, and for unknown reasons showing double exposures in places.  They don't play with the contrast, tone down the detail, or soften the image to make it look like a real old movie however and most of this footage, and there's a good amount of it, is just painful to watch.  (One note to the creators of this documentary:  silent newsreel footage was never in color.  That's just laughable.)

This documentary was filled with quotes from people who were there, excerpts from their diaries, letters home and newspaper dispatches.  Ken Burns filled his groundbreaking series The Civil War with first hand accounts and had them read off camera by actors.  This show doesn't take that approach.  They have these first hand accounts read on screen by actors.  The main qualification for these actors was apparently how close they resembled the person they were portraying.  The guy who plays Teddy Roosevelt does look a lot like him, as does the man who portrays Stephen Crane.  (The author of The Red Badge of Courage, he covered the war as a reporter.)  Unfortunately acting ability came in a poor second, because most of the people on screen are terrible.  It sounds like they are reading their lines from cue cards.  Most of these people look like they've never acted before in their lives.  It's that bad.  There's a reason that reenactors aren't usually used as actors.

Another thing is that when people write letters home and newspaper reports they don't use the same language they would if they were talking.  This makes for some really awkward lines and odd sounding monologs, which makes this a really hard show to watch.

Audio:

The stereo soundtrack is acceptable and sounds pretty good.  The dialog is easy to discern and the background music comes through clearly.  The battle scenes could have used a bit more bass and these action sequences aren't as dynamic as they could be, especially for reenactments.

Video:

The 1.78:1 widescreen image is not, amazing as it seems in this day and age, not anamorphically enhanced.  Unfortunately that isn't the only thing that makes this disc hard to watch.  As mentioned in the body of the review, the creators of this documentary purposefully made sections look bad, trying (unsuccessfully) to give these that look of old silent newsreels.  This just makes the show hard to watch.  It is really painful in parts, especially when they use double exposures.  The disc does an admirable job of reproducing this horrible looking show, which is something I suppose.

Extras:

This disc also comes with a making of featurette that runs about 10-minutes.  As these types of things go, it was a pretty good.  It covers the weapons they used, the special effects, and the reenactors that were used.  There wasn't the usual back-patting that goes on in these things, which was nice to see.

Theodore Roosevelt:  Roghrider to Rushmore is a 45-minute episode of A&E's Biography which is much better than the main feature.  It covers his whole life, and does a good job of putting a human face of this bigger than life character.
 
Final Thoughts:

I was really hoping that this would be a good documentary on this war that is often overlooked.  Though it does do a good job of covering the facts the way it was made makes it hard to watch.  It is really astoundingly bad in some places.  If you're looking to fill in the gaps of your knowledge of this period of American history, this would be the worst place to start, but make it a rental.