Apocalypse la 1ère Guerre mondiale

This mini-TV documentary series aired on the 'American Heroes' cable channel in the US. I've always been interested in WW1, pursuing many books, films and documentaries on this topic.

I had no idea this much vintage video from every aspect of the war existed. This production must have been a real labor of love, as they have very skillfully and respectfully added realistic soundtrack and restrained coloring to this amazing archival footage. The music and graphics are also excellent, resulting in a compelling, "first-hand" account.

Many little known historical aspects are also presented, e.g., that the Germans orchestrated sending Lenin back to Russia as a diversion to weaken the Russian military. Even if you think you have no interest in the First World War, this is a "must see" because so many of our world issues (creation of Iraq, impetus for WW2) stem from the aftermath of WW1.

As a history buff I find this series for WW l shows more than what you will learn in history class. You see the faces of those involved in this and how widespread this war really was. The narrator, Francois Arnaud makes the series unforgettable. His voice and tone you will never forget.

You will see battle scenes that show how arrogant and little care about the loss of life by most of those in charge really were by using tactics that were outdated. Not only will you will see scenes of suffering and hardships of the soldiers, you will also see scenes of the civilians dealing with the the war.

The prejudices between nations, religions, cultures and color are pointed out and you still see today. You will see how the arrogance of most of the world leaders and the desire to teach Germany a lesson was a main contribution that led to WW ll with loss of German soil and reparations. The face of Europe changed and would again change after WW ll.

Watching the series multiple times there are still information you will learn and see that one may miss.

I also look to see if I will ever see a face of a relative that served in the US service. It would be interesting how many others do the same and if they find a scene showing a relative, military or civilian.

It is a shame we have learned nothing about the effects of any war. This series shows that quite well.

Amazing images, great presentation, awesome music, effective narration and excellent colorization job. A bit confusing here and there (unlike "Apocalypse: la 2eme guerre mondiale") due to the complexity of that war i guess, but i'm not an expert in politics or historical facts, so it was expected somehow.

The music is really efficient and the sound effects are well made but i was surprised by the bad audio mix from time to time; the level of the narrator (Mathieu Kassovitz) is unequal and sometime buried by the music.

I will watch it a couple times because there's a tremendous amount of information. The horror of the war and the worse side of humanity is very well pictured and of course some scenes are quite disturbing.

Really fantastic images, it's definitely a "must watch"!

I found this series playing on American Heroes Channel one evening and after watching the first five-minutes of the show I was hooked. The storytelling combined with the real colorful images via archival footage was amazing. Even the soundtrack was too-notch and added extra life to the scenes.

Extremely well done, and I would watch again just to try and absorb all the information that is presented. If you didn't know much about WWI and all it's its main characters and events - you certainly will after watching this. WWI was a horrible event that had many differing components, but also should not be forgotten for all the sacrifices that were made. This show definitely does the era justice in a good way! Highly recommended historical viewing!

First of all, I have to say this is definitely the best WW1 documentary I have seen, not just because it's in color, but also because it brings a fresh view on such an old topic. The whole documentary is built upon a cause-and-effect logic, which I really appreciated and this is valid especially when analyzing how a seemingly tranquil and prosperous Europe was suddenly plunged into the chaos and nightmare of a world war. Furthermore, I was happy to see the documentary also talks about the less glorious aspects of the war (such as the mutiny of soldiers, especially in the French army) and that it includes information about less known theaters like Turkey and the Pacific.

On the downside, however, the main weakness of the documentary is that it is dis-proportionally focused on the Western front, possibly creating the impression that the other fronts were just side-shows and that the whole war was just a crawl through the muddy trenches. This is absolutely not the case especially for the Eastern Front, where an even higher number of casualties than on the Western Front occurred and where the large spaces offered opportunity for wars of maneuver, unlike the trench warfare predominant in the West. In this respect, I was disappointed that the Russian Brusilov offensive of 1916, the greatest advance any army achieved during the war is not even mentioned. Furthermore, information is severely lacking for the following countries:

• Serbia: the only information about Serbia is that the Serbs initially stopped the Austrian offensive in 1914; absolutely nothing afterwards about its defeat and occupation by the Central Powers in 1915.
• Bulgaria: it is only mentioned that it joined the Central Powers, but there's not the slightest information about what happened afterwards and who they fought.
• Romania: I found it absolutely inexcusable that Romania is not mentioned even once during the 4 and a half hours of the documentary. Without saying a word about the fact that Romania had even entered the war, at the very end they say that among others some 200,000 Romanian soldiers died in the conflict. At this point even the most basic information is missing, for example on whose side Romania fought. It would have probably been useful to mention that the Germans had to relocate much needed divisions from the battle of Verdun the moment Romania entered the war in order to stabilize the front. In addition, the German conquest of half of Romania in 1916, an extraordinary feat of arms, which historian Michael Barrett named a "prelude to blitzkrieg", could have also been interesting to include.

I totally understand the need to focus on the main aspects of the war, but I think applying a principle of proportionality is preferable to overlooking some potentially relevant information. A few phrases would have been enough to give a general overview also on these aspects above.

To sum up, great documentary and analysis for the Western Front, but unfortunately it fails to cover some relevant aspects from the Eastern Front.