I am disappointed.


First I dislike the narrative. Both the way it is written and the way it is delivered. It is like listening to a goodnight story for kids rather than a serious documentary. The music that is played along is also very inappropriate for a documentary, even annoying at times. Apart from the footage collected and editing, the whole thing is well below a decent documentary.

We humans possess one absolutely amazing ability: imagination. Use it...

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I think you have to take into account the sweep of the entire presentation. There is a [b}lot[/] of history covered. It is sometimes easy to forget just how big the Pacific War was and everything it entailed. With this in mind, Victory at Sea was originally presented as more a episodic TV series, than a documentary. If that makes sense. The narrative (the narrarator's pronunciation of some words bugs the hell out of me, too) is more overview than textual history and this was one of the first television documentaries, ever.

I will have to disagree with the music thought. Rogers score is classic and I think fits the presentation perfectly. Perhaps you consider the presentation jingoistic. Well, to each his own. Yes, compared to any historical work done from World at War onward, the Victory at Sea suffers some on production.

The footage is fantastic.

EDIT:

I watched it this evening with that in mind and I'll have to admit you're right. The narration does kind of sound like a bedtime story.......never noticed it before.


Conservatives shape policy to deal with reality. Libprogs reshape reality to match their policies.

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I keep reading this "bedtime story" complaint and I've never really thought that about Victory. I think you have to remember this was made for prime time television in the early 1950s.... so in essence, it WAS a bedtime story... for grown ups.

You have to think that much of the audience probably lived that war or were emotionally tied to it, at least. I always got the impression this was kind of intended to appeal to them. I actually like the narration style and writing along with that iconic score... it's not a boring and droning history lecture posing as a documentary. It's much more captivating and interesting.

And the writing... oh my god, the writing! Are you kidding?

All hands are quiet, tense, waiting...
The Japanese are in the trap and the jaws close!
Suddenly...brilliantly... search lights dispel the night...
The Battle of Surigao Strait is on!
Old battlships that rose from the muck and humiliation of Pearl Harbor,
take their vengeance on Surigao Strait!
The Japanese Southern Force is destroyed!


I think it is awesome writing. That with the score is what I love the most about it.

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The commentary is terrible not just the childlike nature of the delivery but they can't even get that little island that stood alone against the Nazis name correct.

I know American geography is laughably bad but confusing Great Britain with England is amateur stuff.

Love is the law...

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