The two World Wars hold an essential place in modern history, profoundly influencing the social, political, and economic conditions around the world. World War II usually gets more of the attention, and viewers interested in exploring how the second World War started and played out can bury themselves in excellent documentaries such as The World at War. But what about the first World War? Usually relegated to a single episode (or half of one) in a WWII documentary, World War I is often seen as just the setup for WWII. That hardly does justice to what was, in truth, just as cataclysmic as the second war, and perhaps even more influential in the big picture. I've been in search of a really good World War I documentary, so it seemed worthwhile to check out the eight-part series The Great War.

Unfortunately, The Great War falls short of expectations. It's a passable documentary, but it really misses the chance to step ahead of the others in the pack.

The Great War follows the course of World War I from 1914 to 1918, with one episode per year; the three final episodes look at the technology of warfare on land, air, and sea. While a chronological approach might seem logical, in fact it's only superficially a good approach. By simply following events - this happened, then that, then this - the program limits itself to a shallow level of analysis. We are shown how particular battlefield decisions lead to particular consequences, but there's no examination of cause and effect beyond the scale of months. The focus of each episode on a single year means that we never see events put into a more significant, long-term perspective. As a result, the program sidesteps an in-depth analysis of the really interesting questions: Why did the war start? How did things come to this? Why did events happen as they did? How could they have been different?

This short-term approach is particularly disappointing in the beginning of the series; the origins of the war are, in my view, the most important elements of the whole subject. However, we get a fairly quick overview of the events leading up to the start of fighting - no more than I've seen in some WWII documentaries! - and then the program moves into a detailed look at the individual battles. Many names are tossed into the mix, with generals' names used even if it's not necessarily clear why we need to know the name (or what's important about that particular figure).

For military history enthusiasts, the focus on particular battles will be acceptable, but even there, the material is presented less effectively than it could be. Maps are shown, but they're not used well at all. National borders are generally not marked or labeled, so it's difficult to keep correctly oriented. We get little explosions denoting battles, but no arrows or useful markings to indicate what's going on. Graphics can make or break a documentary like this; here the presentation is barely adequate but certainly not good enough to be an actual point in the documentary's favor. The narrator does a satisfactory job of providing the voiceover, but the material itself is presented more slowly than I'd like; there's a lot of empty space with visuals but no commentary.

All in all, The Great War isn't bad, but it's certainly not what I'd hoped for. If you don't know much about World War I to begin with, the emphasis on details and battles will be overwhelming; there's no clear "big picture" presentation. On the other hand, if you know the broad outlines of the material, you won't be too happy either, as there's not much by way of analysis. Really the only viewers who will be satisfied by the documentary are military history enthusiasts who really want a blow-by-blow description of all the battles of the war... and even they will likely be disappointed by the lackluster use of maps and graphics here.

The DVD

The Great War is a three-disc set. Each DVD is in its own slim plastic keepcase, with the three discs inside a glossy paperboard slipcase.

Video

Considering the extreme age of the video footage, the image quality of The Great War is quite solid. The footage is, obviously, worn and soft, with a lot of damage in many cases, but the important thing is that we're getting to see it. The archival material is all in its original black and white, and the episodes are presented in their original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is clean and clear, providing a satisfactory listening experience. I found that the volume overall was rather low, so I had to turn it up considerably, but other than that it seemed fine.

Extras

There are no special features here.

Final thoughts

I'm still looking for a World War I documentary to match the quality of The World at War's treatment of World War II. The Great War devotes eight hours to the subject of the first World War, but it presents more of a blow-by-blow narration of the facts than an analysis of what was happening and why. For the time being, I'd suggest that the World War I material in The Century of Warfare still comes out on top. History buffs will probably be interested in The Great War as a rental; after all, it's not bad... just not what it could and should be.