The World at War (1973-74)

Directors: Hugh Raggett & John Pett              Writers: Neal Ascherson & Peter Blatty
Music Score: Carl Davis                                Cinematography: Peter Lang
Narration: Laurence Olivier                             Editing: Beryl Wilkins & Alan Afriat

One of the most haunting melodies ever written was by composer Carl Davis for the BBC series The World at War. The music was made even more dramatic by the opening montage of black and white images of faces associated with the war that burned and blistered into each other as the flames rose in front of them. Forty years after its first airing it is still the best documentary series on World War II ever produced. Likely it always will be. Even Ken Burns wound up bottoming out when he reached World War II and his series The War wound up being one of his least successful. Whatever technical advances in film and documentary work that have taken place since, most of the people who were in the war are now gone. The thing that makes this such a riveting piece of work is the interviews with people like Abert Speer and Kay Summersby and the immediacy that they bring. In addition a host of other lesser subjects, both military and civilian, take part in bringing the history alive.

Another aspect that is missed so greatly in recent documentaries is the gravity with which the material is presented. To a large degree the credit for that must go to the narrator of the series, Laurence Olivier. He has exactly the right tone, both grave and ironic at times, but always with a sense of the reverence for the material. The writing is also incredibly good because it’s not compelled to fill every empty space. This is a visual medium and most of the time the images speak for themselves. And the directors of the series do a nice job of letting them. The other problem with covering World War II is deciding how much to cover. With two major theaters of war and a half dozen other minor theaters it is vastly complex and takes place over a six-year period--even more when attempting to explain the events leading up to the war. The producers wisely chose a geographical approach.

After an opening episode looking at the beginnings, there are shows that look at each of the major countries as they enter the war. France is first, the victim of Blitzkrieg and suddenly out of the war. Britain is focused on prior to America’s entry and how they were left to fight the Germans alone. There are episodes on Barbarosa, Hitler’s invasion of Russia, the Japanese threat in Asia, U.S. isolationism, and the African campaign. Episodes on Russia, Nazi Germany, Japan, D-Day, The Holocaust, and the Atomic bomb followed the next year. In addition to the episodes that aired in the seventies, several shorter episodes have been put together with existing footage on Hitler’s secretary (a great German film that features her is called Downfall with Bruno Ganz), the soldiers who fought on all sides, two expanded episodes on Nazi Germany as well as two on The Holocaust and the end of the war. The World at War is still the best series ever produced on World War II, and arguably one of the greatest documentaries of all time, regardless of subject.