Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)These documentaries were not up to the History Channel's usual high standards. While the series had wonderful potential, the narrations and film clip selections were typically ineffective, or down right amateurish.
First the good points: This series covers the history of selected US warships ... mostly ships from World War II that are now preserved as floating museums. The narrations, sound, and film quality were clear. Each story integrated the histories of earlier ships with the same name. Many of the stories are justifiably devoted to the crew, rather then the machine/ship, as these men were the true heroes. There are many good eye witness testimonies from the veterans who served on these ships. This documentary series did have a few pleasant surprises. The story of the USS Constitution was also completely devoted to a modern training program for US Navy petty officers. The story of LST 325 was devoted to all LSTs of World War II.
The narrations were very poorly written. Little attention was paid toward chronological order. In many cases, the stories of the ship and surrounding events were superficially described - without stating why this or that was important. They often made their ship sound like she was the most important ship in each battle - rather then a team member. The author showed little understanding of tactics or strategy. Many times they used "revenge" as the sole reason for military operations - rather then any well thought out planning.
There were a few places where the narrations made some really foolish bloopers. During the introduction of the history of the battleship USS Arizona, they ask "What kind of ship fights an entire war in ten minutes"? In the story of constructing the battleship USS Texas, they made it sound like her guns were designed for shore bombardment. The story of the cargo ship Jeremiah O'Brian claimed that she was the only surviving Liberty ship. It would have been better to say that she was "one of two remaining Liberty ships" because there is another Liberty ship, the John W. Brown, at Baltimore, Maryland. The film title USS Jeremiah O'Brian is also a misnomer because she was never commissioned in the US Navy. In the story of the carrier USS Yorktown, when they were talking about the suicide mission of the Japanese battleship Yamato, they said "Yorktown and all of the Task Force 58 carriers know that Yamato's 18.1 inch guns can strike from over 25 miles. They must stop the speeding giant before she is anywhere close to the beachhead." However, Allied intelligence (see Jane's Fighting Ships) states that the 45,000 ton Yamato only carried 16 inch guns. Whille the Yamato presented a serious danger, it is doubtful that the Allies knew her exact mission.
The choice of historic film clips were also filed with bloopers. Many shots did not aid the story line. They often represented one ship with film clips of ships that were not only of a different class, and/or era, but sometimes even a different nation. Still photos or (shots of museum quality models) of the correct ship would have been much better representations. I also found it annoying when many of their modern film clips were shown as momentary high speed, followed by normal speed. There were a few great pieces of computer animation, but these were never utilized to their full potential. The series would have benefitted if they had devoted a few minutes of film to study each ships characteristics. The series would have also benefitted if they had made greater use of maps.
Overall, I was very disappointed with the series. While some novelist might find it entertaining, I found it to be an example of how NOT to make a professional history documentary.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The History Channel : The Hero Ships : Lst-325 , USS Jeremiah O'brien , USS Samuel B. Roberts , USS Arizona , USS Constitution , USS Enterprise , USS Hornet , USS Laffey , USS Nautilus , USS New Jersey , USS New York , USS Texas , USS Yorktown : 4 Disc Box Set - 650 Minutes
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