Vietnam in HD

The History Channel Serves Up A Fitting And Personal Six Part Miniseries Tribute To Those Who Served During Vietnam
Emulating the formula that worked so successfully with its impressive "WWII in HD," the History Channel set its sights on a new generation of hero with "Vietnam in HD." All of the trademark production values are present including actual footage shot by soldiers in battle as well as high profile actors incorporated into dramatic vocal recreations. While all of the newly filmed material looks stellar in its HD presentation, the real Vietnam filmstock quality varies depending upon the source material. It has, however been cleaned and restored to an admirable degree and many of the images (as they were culled from private sources) have not been utilized before in other Vietnam projects. This found footage provides "Vietnam in HD" a real intimacy. The six part miniseries is both a harrowing and realistic look at the Vietnam conflict as well as a fitting tribute to the men who served. While few documentaries can hope to cover every angle of this complicated situation (and I'm sure...

Controversial War, Honorable Soldiers
Vietnam is my generation's war. It is hard to comprehend the young kids shooting the video presented in this DVD are now, like me, in their sixties. This DVD is not an in depth study of the war. It does not get into the reasons why this country became both mired in it, and torn apart by it. The Gulf of Tonkin is mentioned as the first step toward increasing U.S. involvement, but it does not discuss the controversy regarding legitimacy of the Tonkin incident. It doesn't mention Mai Lai, nor does it spend a lot of time discussing the reasons why the American public turned against the war. It is not meant to. This is the recollections of the young Americans who were on the ground, a nurse who served there and a P.O.W.'s wife. It does a great job of describing all the different hard fought engagements with the NVA, and the horror of it all. Many who went to Vietnam were volunteers,but many were draftees with no say in the matter. These young men served without caring about the politics...

A Series That Starts Out Strong, But Finishes with A Whimper
The series starts out strong with some vivid images and compelling stories that bring back strong personal memories of the early years of the Vietnam War. We really thought that once the U.S. military arrived in force it would be over within a year or so. I was in the fifth grade in 1965. Seven years later, in 1972, I was graduating from high school and facing the prospect of being drafted to fight in what appeared to be a never ending war.

I was impressed with the early episodes of this series, but it goes down hill beginning with episode 3. First, though the producers come up with some very good images of the war, they did not do their research very well. They show images of US Army infantrymen in combat while telling a story concerning the Marines on the DMZ. There are many examples of the film not matching the story being told. Second, by episode 3 they are starting to repeat the same film images over and over again. Third, there is virtually no mention of the other...

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