User Reviews

If you want to understand the 1940's, your parents or grandparents and the times in which they grew up, then this is the documentary to watch. The entire 3 hours will make you smile, make you proud and bring tears to your eyes as you listen to the music that motivated a country, the personal stories of the people who were coming of age then and life before, during and after World War II. It is a terrific story and you'll find you can't tear your eyes away from the screen as the film makers have truly brought that era to life. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a penchant for that time in history or a fondness for movies made during those years.

As someone who lived through the l940s both as a civilian and soldier, I found producer Tom Spain's documentary surprisingly true to the innocence, patriotism, sacrifices, romantic love, horrible tragedy and powerful changes that World War II wrought to my generation. Narrator Charles Durning, who landed at Normandy on D-Day, is riveting how he puts these times in personal terms. He confesses that memories of those days and nights come dreamily back to him in bed at night --the music and dancing, the innocence and optimism of the young, the awfulness of combat and the weariness of war, and the miracle of our final victory when at last it came in l945. To understand the euphoria that swept America when both the European and Pacific conflicts finally ended you must ingest the the sights and sounds this motion picture gives us from the past. Produced in l998 this three-hour retrospective does an amazing job of bringing to life the joys and sorrows as told by some of the men and women who still seem amazed -- now that they are in their late 70s and early 80s -- that Americans could come together as a strong and united family despite differences of race, creed, color, and place of origin to carry this burden. Everyone interviewed is outstanding and Durning's narration while that of a professional actor seems truly to come from his heart rather than a script he has been asked to read. Until I see what Ken Burns does with "The War" I regard this documentary the best ever done for this period of our history,