Vietnam in HD

I liked this a lot. It seemed that the series strove to maintain a neutral point of view in regard to the causes and/or futility of the war while maintaining focus on the individuals they profiled, and in my opinion they largely succeeded. Unlike a previous reviewer, I did not find it to be overly narcissistic, pro-war, or even all that pro-American, though the focus was definitely on the American experience. Some time was also devoted to other factors, such as life for the families back home, protests and movements, and U.S. administration positions on the war at various points, though the main focus remained with the progress of the war and the battlefields themselves.

Leaving the controversies aside, I thought that what the series tried to do -- portray the experiences of various individuals at certain key places and events in the war -- they did quite well. I also liked the graphics and illustrations and, as opposed to other documentaries I have seen, I thought that these were distributed well and did not get in the way of the real story. The CGI stuff was good and not overdone, in my opinion.

The thing about Vietnam is that once you start discussing the controversies and what we now know to be untruths, it is a discussion without end, full of passion and short on facts, not because of the people discussing it but because the whole thing was based upon a twenty year series of lies and deceptions on the part of the governments involved. Wherever there are lies there will always be arguments, and the subject of the Vietnam war is proof positive of this on a massive scale. This series did not attempt to take any of that on, and wisely so. Though at times I found this irritating -- for instance, the neutral announcement of the events in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 as legal cause for Johnson's escalation, when we now know that at least one of the incidents never happened -- I could recognize it as necessary in telling the story. If they had taken on any one of the many controversies or governmental lies, it would have been a quicksand from which the series would not have recovered. I'm glad they didn't!

It is good to remember that many of those fighting were not volunteers but draftees: it was a federal charge and prison time to dodge the draft. In that light, I do not think that talk of honor and duty is narcissistic or out of place: many did not choose the war, but were sent by force. These went in service to their *country* -- if not the war itself -- and acquitted themselves on a personal level largely with great honor, regardless of the legitimacy of the war or their belief in it. Many times in the series you hear the soldiers referring to the war as a lost cause, and yet they gave their lives for it, if only because that was what they personally felt was the honorable thing to do. I believe that this *personal* honor, courage and heroism on an *individual* level is what this series was trying to bring out, and I think it succeeded very well.

I enjoyed this series in spite of its neutral point of view, and I think it was very nicely done given the incredibly controversial nature of the war and its premises. While I would NOT recommend this series as a primer on Vietnam, nor even a good outline or overview -- you'd be better off going to Wikipedia for that -- it did very well with what it tried to do, and it's well worth a watch if wartime documentaries are something you like. Enjoy!

What strikes me most about this series is how it is possible, even necessary, for Americans to take this most colossal of domestic and international blunders and attempt to ennoble it with fancy language about "buddies" and "honor" and "sacrifice" and other words that are, shall we say, incompatible with the utter annihilation of generations here and there.

To say this series is bad would be incorrect. What it is, is somehow disgusting jingoism. The fake-dramatic music, the lap dissolves, the Times Roman font, the narration of simplistic statements made to sound deep by the hammy-sounding readers - it is deeply repellent, even more so than the earlier "WWII in HD" was repellent. One should learn from his mistakes and correct them. That's something Americans don't seem to understand. War-mongering is only compatible with victory.

Reviewer's update: The series ends with a predictable paean to militarism from the veterans featured in the series, which is grossly offensive, comparing those who returned from the modern catastrophes in Iraq and Afghanistan (the latter ongoing) to themselves. They have, I suppose, the right to this opinion in compensation for their respective ordeals. But at least this conclusion is a consistent ending to a series that attempts to ennoble a moral, political, and societal catastrophe. This is simply not possible. Those who are predisposed to accept that America is a militaristic state with the God given right to throw its destructive weight around regardless of consequences, will find the series compelling. Those who prefer the position of Washington, Jefferson, Grant, Eisenhower, etc. will be filled with a combination of remorse and revulsion.

I'm giving this one a 5 for the footage. It's nice to see so much original footage and that's what I'm always looking for. I admire the people with the cameras in the field. So using their footage means giving them credit for what they did. They shot with cameras, not with guns. Too bad, however, that it's almost all US footage, almost no North VN footage was used.

Other than that, this is yet another very one-sided documentary of the Vietnam war. From the first second to the last everything shouts "look at us heroes, we're so awesome, we did so good". Americans seem to be utterly incapable of objectively reporting on the subject of war. It seems to me that with every documentary on the subject they're doing all they can to cover up the fact that they got their asses kicked. By a much weaker force by the way. Just admit it and move on. Terrible things happened and those are the facts. That's what I want from a documentary, the facts! Not a deep-sounding voice telling me how difficult some General's decision was, how long he had to think about it just to portray him as a good guy. State the facts please, and leave it at that. Don't put the ever-American gloss over it to make it look more than it is.

Conclusion : If you want a 50/50 mix between some Band Of Brothers with some info put in and everything video and audio pointing out they were incredible heroes, than watch this. If you're looking for a good documentary stating the facts and looking at this war from both sides, keep looking, this is not it.

I was surprised to see there was only one review of this , i was expecting a couple of hundred at least. Clearly the other poster was not impressed by this series and i agree with a lot of what he said but i also think that these pages in history shouldn't be forgotten and if that means some cheesy music and a bit of hammy voice acting then so be it, although i think Michael C Hall was the ideal person to narrate this.

Putting the production aside there is a wealth of archive footage that gives you a glimpse of what it was like over there, I've never been in a war but I feel I should at least watch these documentaries and try to understand what they go through. I'm not even American and I feel I owe them that which is why i was surprised to see such a small number of reviews.

I make a point of watching and reading as much as I can on any conflict that people have fought and died in, to recognize and remember what they did is the least we can do. Listn to the real guys talking ,look at their faces in the archive footage and read between the lines...ignore the music, that is how you watch a war documentary.

This documentary covers the Vietnam War from 1964-1975 with a different set of people and different film footage. The series is 6 episodes long, with each episode running about 45 minutes.

Titled "Vietnam in HD" 2016 not 2011, you are expecting spectacular film footage. In reality, the HD is the content, not the footage. It is a tad graphic in descriptions. This has voices of many known and unknown people.

If you have seen other documentaries then you do not need to watch this rehash. If you have not seen other documentaries this is a good beginning as it is pretty neutral in its content and not trying to be more than a presentation. Of course, even without a covert agenda, it is one person's view.

I have knowledge of some of the places 1967-1968, 14 months so it looks real and reasonable. Of course, concentrating on war, you do not get time to see the majestic mountains, cool overgrown forests, clear sandy beaches and beautiful people.