Ancient Aliens – Season One + Gangland
– Season Six + Human Weapon – Season
One + The World At War
(1973/History Channel/A&E Blu-ray Sets)
Picture:
B- (Gangland: C+) Sound: B- (War: C+) Extras:
C+/C/D/B Episodes: C+/B-/B-/B+
A&E
and The History Channel continue what is the largest selection of special
interest Blu-ray product on the market with four new titles. All are professionally produced and offer
everything you could ask on their respective subjects, the three new series
still being in production.
Ancient Aliens – Season One goes back to the popular ideas
about aliens having visited centuries ago and possibly even being the source of
some of the ideas and technology we have today.
This speculative series offers five hour-long shows that can run on a
bit, but the producers expect if you buy them early on, you’ll watch the whole
thing. It is as entertaining as the old In Search Of... series with Leonard
Nimoy and is at least consistent. Erich
von Daniken had a huge hit book on the subject called Chariots Of The Gods (1968) and he is a producer on the show, so
think of it as an update of the same material.
Gangland – Season Six picks up were we left off on this
Season Five DVD review:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10211/Gangland+%E2%80%93+Season+Fiv
With more
disturbing trends and violent groups to cover (who knew there were so many),
the episodes this time include Snitch
Slaughter, Trinity Of Blood, Street Law, Skinhead Assault, Crazy
Killers, Bloody South, Devil’s Diciples, The Assassins, Beware The
Goose!, Sex, Money, Murder and Hell House. It is very comprehensive as a show and though
it may seem sensational at times, it is very watchable and you can see why it
is such a long running hit.
Human Weapon – Season One has the potential of being as big
and enduring a hit as this show takes the more studied route of the current
trend of mixed martial arts growing commercial success to see the origins and
amazing range of those arts. This debut
season includes the episodes Muay Thai:
Ultimate Striking, Eskrima
Stickfighting, Karate, Savate Streetfighting, Judo: Samurai Legacy, Pankration: The
Original Martial Art, Krav Maga of
the Israeli Commandos, Marine Corps
Martial Arts, MMA: America’s Extreme
Fighting, Kung Fu, Sambo: Russia’s Extreme Fighting, Cambodian Blood Sport, Silat: Martial Art Of Malaysia, Passport To Pain, Ninjutsu and Taekwondo. My only complaint is that some of the shows
ought to be two-parters, but this is a great start to a series that could
become very popular.
Finally
is The World At War and though some
other releases have had that title, this is the famous 1973 documentary
mini-series narrated by no less than Sir Laurence Olivier. A then massive 26 hours/episodes, it was
considered a great achievement as the mini-series was a new forum in general,
but it holds up very well 35 since it was first broadcast to rave reviews and
higher ratings than expected. This is it
he first time any Thames Television production has been restored and issued on
Blu-ray, which is rare since most of their shows were on PAL analog videotape
of the time (Callan, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Benny Hill Show, etc.) with limited
16mm footage if any.
Much has
been said, uncovered and done about the events of World War II since this aired
and it is one of the most frequently covered subjects on home video, but in
that face of all of that it holds up incredibly well and shows how weak and
lacking many such programs since have been.
Researched incredibly well, there is still information here you will not
find in most WWII documentary programs and Olivier (still in top form) set a
new high watermark for narration all the way to IMAX programming.
On the
subject of WWII and the world history that goes with it, it is a must-see
series, even after all of these years.
Yes, there will be some overlap with other programs, especially after 35
years, but the events were nearly 80 years ago.
Being from around the halfway point of that timeline, it was built to
last and it shows. It is no surprise,
therefore, that it would be the first classic TV documentary mini-series to hit
Blu-ray.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on the new shows are shot in HD and
though they have motion blur, look good, though Gangland is a little weaker as some of the footage is low
definition, analog video, undercover footage or from other sources, as
expected. World was originally shot on film, but also has immense, extensive
film sources that range from 8mm film, 9mm film, 16mm film and 35mm film to
newsreels and it was all restored, making it quite a mix. Purists might not be happy with this since
the original series was shown at 1.33 X 1, but it did not bother me as
much. Thames
has done their best to fix this and they did as fine a job as could be
expected.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 2.0 on the new programs sounds good, warm and
fine, though some audio on Gangland
is rougher. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
lossless 5.1 mix on World does what
it can to expand the old monophonic sound, but the age of the material is
apparent throughout, though a 2.0 version would likely have sounded weaker, so
this was a smart move.
Extras
are not available on Weapon, but Ancient adds the History Channel
special Ancient Aliens: Chariots, Gods
& Beyond, Gangland adds
Additional Footage (which is better than the last season on DVD) and World has
a ton of extras that outdo everything else here with ease. They include a Restoration featurette and
nine bonus documentaries: Hitler’s
Germany: The People’s Community 1933 – 1938, Hitler’s Germany: Total War 1939 – 1943, The Two Deaths Of Adolf Hitler, Secretary
To Hitler, Warrior (derived from
interviews for the mini-series, including some footage not used for it), From War To Peace, The Final Solution (in two parts, but we’ll count it as one), Making The Series: A 30th
Anniversary Retrospective and Experiences
Of War. That makes The World At War a key classic TV on
Blu-ray release and the first in the documentary category that should be far
from the last.
- Nicholas Sheffo
