Korean War: Our Time in Hell (2pc) [VHS]

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Product details

Artist: Korean War-Our Time in Hell
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 101 minutes
Release Date: 2001-10-09
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Questar
Studio: Questar

VHS Movie Reviews of Korean War: Our Time in Hell (2pc) [VHS]

Movie Review: An Excellent Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars

Much is expected from a modern-day documentary. No more are dry, monologued narations over dull archival footage acceptable. The typical documentaries of old either put you to sleep or made you feel as if you were in the class room of that teacher from the wonder years. You had to really love the material to enjoy it, and even then, you would watch it soley for the information it contained, but even then the poor quality of presentation was obvious.

Now-a-days documentary making has taken a differnt turn, turning over the other end of the spectrum. Now history channel specials can be too mainstream, focusing too much on melo-drama and entertainment and not enough on content. But some documentaries are getting it right - with plenty of information, depth, objectivity, and just delivering it all with stylistic flair appropriate to the content. "The Korean War: Our Time in Hell" is a perfect example of the perfect documentary.

The Korean War is worthy of such a documentary. It was America's first "undeclared war". It was the first use of the United Nations as a tool to preserving world peace and stabillity - having a UN sanctioned force effectively reverse an invasion of a soveriegn nation by a neighboring power and reinstall it's government. It was a precursor to vietname and the other conflicts to follow and marked a transition from the paradigm of warfare we had kept in the two world wars towards the "limited wars" that would take place in the second half of the 20th century. This of course was a result of nuclear weapons having been introduced to the world in 1945 and the horrible prospects a 3rd world war could have.

It was also one of the closest moments the US came to a 3rd world war with China and the Soviet Union, and probably the Closest America has come to using Nuclear weapons. It was in Korea that the US realised that nuclear weapons were not just weapons in the arsenal to be used in a conflict, but weapons of deterence - and from here on mutually assured destruction would be US policy. It was a massive war that began with a blitzkreig speed invasion of overwhelming force, then was miraculously and decisively turned by one single manuever (the invasion of inchon) and then completely reversed again by the entrance of the 200,000 chinese into the war, and finally reverse one last time by the american 8th army to end up back the the 43rd parallel where it all began.

Yet Korea takes a place alongside the war of 1812 as one of America's "forgoten wars". This documentary looks at the strategic moves, the political motives, the carnage, the suffering, the failures, and the successes of the war. It looks at the bigger than life characters involved - Douglas Macarther, Kim Il Sung, Harry Truman, and Mao Tse Tung. It's packed with information and is done in a dramatic stylized way as to really underline what was at stake here. It also gives excellent naration, plenty of interviews with soldiers and is both entertaining while remaining extremely informative. Probably the best Korean War documentary I've seen.

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Summary of Korean War: Our Time in Hell (2pc) [VHS]

This two-tape boxed set, subtitled Our Time in Hell, provides an excellent chronology of the conflict in Korea. Produced by Discovery Channel, it makes good use of interviews with Korean War veterans from both sides of the fighting, as well as extensive use of archival footage. Rare film shot early in the conflict, in 1950, by a crew from NBC News, provides vivid testimony about the ferocity of the fighting. The video offers a very solid history of the conflict (the late historian Clay Blair, an expert on the Korean War, served as a historical consultant for the video production) and is particularly strong at providing a lucid account of how the tide of battle repeatedly surged back and forth between the Communist and United Nations forces during the first year of the war. The roles of two central figures in the war, General Douglas MacArthur, a legend of World War II, and President Harry S. Truman, are examined in some depth, and the global importance of the conflict is also explained capably, but for the most part the film focuses on the fighting men themselves. Watching the extensive combat footage, one can't help but appreciate the suffering borne by troops who had to endure savage fighting in horrifically cold weather. The Korean War: Our Time In Hell is a first-rate production, serious history given a gripping presentation. --Robert J. McNamara

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