Analysis of Documentaries Featuring the World Wars of the 20th Century (Movie Review Sample)

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Analysis of Documentaries Featuring the World Wars of the 20th Century
The first documentary “The story of the German war machine” explores the history of German war throughout the 20th century. It provides a detailed assessment of Germany’s technological advances portraying Germany as well-armed foe of the west powers in wars that occurred in the early 20th century.
The first episode ‘THE GREAT WAR COMES’ focuses on industrial development of Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the technological advances on weaponry, including the battleships, submarines and planes. The second episode ‘FATAL ALLIANCES’ shows the rise of the Nazi government leading into World War II. The third episode ‘FROM NUREMBERG TO NATO’ focuses on the end of the World War II and the fall of Germany. The aftermath of the WWII are also covered showing the split of Germany into East and West Germany.
The Second Documentary by Niall Ferguson is a six episode mini-series that takes a radically different approach of moral analysis expressing social conflicts and racial hatred as the drivers of violence in the 20th century making it the bloodiest century in history of mankind. This documentary begins by exploring conflicts that led to ethnic divisions and racial hatred in the First World War. This is followed by a review of the changes in political doctrines before and after the 1900 where a nation states system based on equality replaced the old system based on inheritance of thrones and property. The documentary also features the inhumane treatment of the ethnic minorities such as the Jews, Armenians and Greeks. The final years of World War II are featured showing the allied nations and the aftermath of the war. Finally the documentary covers the cold war, the totalitarian regimes, and the Chinese economy among others and considers possibility of global war in the future.
The second documentary explains the cause of the First World War by linking the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, then following a series of events to the British cabinet deliberating on the war and the German domination over the continent should they choose not to join the war. He further claimed the world war to be the result of racial hatred.
According to Niall, it was not nationalism that led to outbreak of wars during the 20th century but rather racial differences which he refers to as the age of hatred. Despite the defeat Germany suffered in World War One, the first documentary “The Story of The German War Machine” portrays Germany to have had a well-trained, powerful and well equipped army. Germany made a lot of technological advances in the disciplines of engineering, physics and chemistry. They pioneered a number of war weapons like the use of chemical weapons when they successfully used a poisonous gas ‘chlorine’ by releasing it on enemy troops near Ypres.
The first documentary portrays Germany’s obsessive need to become the world’s super power as a factor that led to the First World War. Their advanced technology gave them a technical advantage over their enemy allies such as the U-boat that sunk many British ships and almost brought them to their knees.
In the second documentary, Niall addresses the idea of biologically distinct races by western states. The west viewed the east as an inferior race that they could easily overpower. This theory was later proved wrong at the battle of Tsushima in 1905 when the Japanese sunk two thirds of the Russian fleet clearly indicating there was no inherent advantage to the west states. The ideology of the western being a superior race continues as Niall further explores a number of racial discrimination cases and minority oppression in Russia and other states. He points explores how ethnic cleansing began in Russia before Hitler’s time.
Transportation also played a key role in both the first and Second World Wars. Ships were an effective mode of transportation used by the British Empire during the war as portrayed in the second documentary. The Trans-Siberian railway also played a major role in supplying allies and was a useful link between Japan and Germany.
The...