Hi guys.

I'm looking for some solid recommendations for documentaries on the US military.

I'm not particular save for one thing: it was made for television. National Geographic, Discovery Channel... that sort of thing. Ideally something fairly long -- 5 hours would be a kind of minimum.

History, tactics, reality-show (like something around an actual boot camp)... I don't care.

Note: I haven't seen any so they'd all be new to me. I'd really like to see a miniseries, something I could watch over a couple of weeks. No docudramas, please.

This may not quite be what you're looking for, but PBS had a series about 15 years ago called "Battlefield" which I liked quite a lot. I saw the first 3 series, the first 2 dealing with WWII and the 3rd dealing with Vietnam. They would present a bunch of different perspectives on the battles presented including the technology, personnel and attitudes on both sides of the line.

Here's the Wiki entry on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_(TV_series)

Going way back, I also liked PBS' series "Liberty!" about the Revolutionary War. I actually bought the DVD set of that one.

Yippee! We been hit by a drive-by spammer!

What a fuq-tard.

Thanks for the titles. And thanks to the bot that BUMPed this thread. Battlefield looks good, and thorough, but Liberty looks a tad more arresting.

Ya..."Liberty" is a little more melodramatic in its portrayal of events. One of the "neat" things it does is, while going over various balltes of the war, it supplements these segments with actors (in period dress) speaking into the camera from actual letters written at the time from key players (including Washington, Franklin, John and Abigail Adams) as well as minor figures like foot soldiers. Many of the actors are recognizable including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Roger Rees.

It covers most of the major battles of the war as well as what was going on politically with the fledgling government.

From a military standpoint, you can't go wrong with "Battlefield", though. It's not as comprehensive from a high level "theater of war" perspective (there were TONS of individual engagements in WWII), but the depth of detail they go into with each battle is pretty spectacular.

I learned a whole lot more about Vietnam in that series than I ever did in school. That season was a departure from the first 2 in that, if memory serves, it followed the war linearly from start to finish whereas the first 2 seeasons jumped around from battle to battle between episodes.

This maybe no help Major but the television series Generation Kill is the most reallistic show I've seen regarding the Military/War in Iraq from a US perspective. It's pacing is slow and deliberate over seven hours.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995832/

It's from the David Simon and Ed Burns who made The Wire which your currently enjoying. Generation Kill's level of realism is incredible too.

Generation Kill (the HBO miniseries) was OK...but it's not a documentary. It's source is from the writings of an embedded Rolling Stone journalist during the march to Baghdad, so take that for what it's worth in terms of bias/no bias. One thing I did like was that there was a journalist who was a character in the show. At certain points (in platoon meetings, soldiers talking while driving), he would take out his pen and start writing in a journal. I don't know if it was the director's intent, but I took that as a signal that this scene actually happened this way (according to the journalist's notes) as opposed to dialogue or situations made up to increase the drama. Maybe I'm wrong and they just did this as an oppotrunity to tell the audience that "this guy in this helmet is the journalist."

As far as comparing mini-series go, I would go with HBO's Band Of Brothers and its lesser offspring The Pacific before Generation Kill.

I wouldn't put Band of Brothers or The Pacific in the same league as Generation Kill. If your searching for something "as real to life as things get" Generation Kill is far superior. Let's just agree to disagree, but, I'd recommend you check out the special features on David Simon's projects to appreciate the level he'll go to, to ensure his work is authentic.

You're right though; Generation Kill isn't a doco so maybe it's not what Major is searching for.

Oh...I'm not looking to start an argument, and I admit I have not watched any of the "extras" on the DVD's as I generally watch these things live as they're transmitted and not on DVD. As far as realism goes...well, I've not been in the military and I've not been in a battlefield (played paintball once...does that count?), but I still give the nod to Brothers. They are tough to compare because they take place in different times where the tactics and circumstances are very different.

As far as the source material goes, I've not read either book, but I did like the fact that Brothers had the actual veterans on camera bookending the episodes as well as the final "special" episode which was a documentary featuring just them and their memories.

I did like Generation Kill, but I probably will not buy the DVD's. I did like The Pacific, but not enough to buy the DVD's. I loved Band of Brothers and got it on DVD and later again on Blu-Ray. For realism I thought The Hurt Locker did a better job than Generation, but again probably not a fair compairson (movie vs. TV, different aspects of the conflict, etc.). I'll agree that we disagree and leave it at that.

On another matter, I forgot about Ken Burns' PBS documentary The War from a couple of years ago. I had a like/dislike relationship with this one; I found the coverage of the domestic side of the war in the US to be too slow and bogged the whole thing down. Overall the pacing was slow and I wound up falling asleep and having to rewind for much of it. Liked seeing some of the color footage that I'd never seen before, but otherwise not a whole lot of memorable stuff there.

It looks like Battlefield is finally getting its due on DVD this month (I guess it's been around for a while on Region 2).
http://www.amazon.com/BATTLEFIELD-Great-European-Battles-WWII/dp/B003YE451E/ref=sr_1_6?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1283517889&sr=1-6

Highly recommended. It's also on the PBS.org site if you like supporting them. $25 for 3 episodes (each episode clocks in between 1.5 - 2 hours). Perhaps it will hit Netflix as well some time this year.

My apologies for bringing up an older topic, but I wanted to thank everyone on here for their suggestions. I happened to stumble upon this thread in Google while looking for "Military Documentaries." How very convenient! I guess the reason I was looking for documentaries of the sort is because my cousin was telling me about the Gulf War and I've been wanting to learn more about, guess what. . the miliary. =P Netflix has been only slightly helpful, but I'd much rather buy/rent some DVD's.

I've never watched the Battlefield TV series before, but it seems like it's pretty great. The fact that it's on DVD is especially helpful because I haven't been able to find it on TV at all. What channel does it normally air on or HAS it aired on? Ah..no worries. I'm rambling. I'll look up the DVD's later. Heck, maybe I'll find it on-demand or something. Peace, everyone. Thanks for all your suggestions and for listening to my rambles.

The World at War may be the finest military documentary ever produced. It has much stuff about the US involvement in WWII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War

Rob

They used to run these on local PBS stations. Not sure if they make the rounds on History channel or not. I recently picked up a few of the WWII Battlefield sets on Blu Ray at DeepDiscount on a BOGO sale.

Not sure when the last time they were broadcast and if the decision is at the local PBS station level or a national thing.

We should be getting more WWII stuff broadcast in general as Memorial Day approaches.