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DVD: Victory At Sea
A&E Home Video (4 DVD set)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Inside the record cabinet that was my favorite childhood playground, alongside the Kingston Trio and Stan Getz albums, lived a series of LPs filled with powerful and dramatic orchestral music in the grooves and equally dramatic photographs of Naval battles on the covers. These were the soundtrack albums to the Victory At Sea television series, which first aired in 1952. Through some fluke of scheduling I never managed to see an episode of the show until I got my hands on this 4-disc box set of DVDs, but it was worth the wait. Sure, the WWII documentary series was guilty of using reenactments to fill gaps here and there (and though they did a good job of disguising them visually, common sense makes them easy to pick out), but the actual battle footage and the dramatic accompaniment of the Richard Rogers score, and even the sometimes campy narration make for a thoroughly entertaining 27 minutes. Believe me, it feels odd to sit here and tell you this, being a person who isn't fond of the whole concept of war, but yes, it's entertaining and informative as historical information. Historical information with Zeros and P-47s streaking over the stormy seas and ships lobbing giant shells at one another as you munch your popcorn and sit on the edge of your seat and...
Oh. Sorry. Well, where was I? Downsides: The sound quality is only so-so, and if they cleaned up the picture, they employed the same method my kids use in cleaning their rooms, because there are little white specks flashing here and there. It must have looked like that in the first place, since the source material was patched together from several places, including captured German and Japanese footage and some Russian footage that looks like someone ice skated across the film several times. Also, you're getting all 26 episodes, but you're getting the A&E versions, which means you get the modern day introductions as well. Purists (like me) might have preferred a chapter system that would have allowed skipping right to the beginning of the actual show, but the opening credits are located at the end of the A&E introductions.
Despite those few gripes, this is a fantastic set for any student of WWII history, early television or documentary filmmaking. There have been several attempts to make similar series, and even if others have been more modern in their narrative approach, none have come close to the impact of Victory At Sea.
© 2003 - DJ Johnson