Victory in the West (1941) Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Additional Images |
The Third Reichs most ambitious war documentary chronicles Hitlers lightning conquest of Holland, Belgium, and France in the spring of 1940. The six week campaign, marked by continuous combat and spectacular German victories, established the blitzkrieg as a bold strategy that revolutionized warfare. Before the offensive, the German high command deployed camera teams of hand picked professionals among various army groups poised to attack. Motorized and permitted unlimited access to the front, the correspondents recorded the onslaught from the perspective of the common soldier. Editors combined this material with the best scenes from the newsreels and captured Allied footage to produce an authentic and riveting cinematic record of the campaign. The novel use of animated maps throughout the feature balances the soldiers eye view of battle with the strategic progress of military operations. Herbert Windt, renowned for elaborate orchestral compositions for the Riefenstahl epics Triumph des Willens and Olympia, provided an original score for the film. The IHF program includes "Panzer Greifen An", a rare wartime featurette introduced by General Heinz Guderian covering the breakthrough at Sedan. An IHF audio slide show presents lesser known details about the west campaign and the making of Sieg im Westen. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Bonus Documentary: ""Panzer Greifen An" " (Panzers Attack!) with Introduction by General of Panzer Troops Guderian (27 Min.) Photo Gallery with Accompanying Scholarly Audio Commentary. Interactive Scene Selection Switchable English and Original German Narration Tracks Digitally Restored and Re-Mastered. Germany, 1941, B&W, 120 minutes, original German sound, English subtitles. NTSC Region 0 encoding (Entire World) |