Dogfights: The Complete Series
by History Channel
List Price:
Our Price: $38.99
You Save: $30.96 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Director: History ChannelDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1316 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video (New REleaset)
Movie Reviews of Dogfights: The Complete Series
Movie Review: Don't miss this great series!
Summary: 5 Stars
Seasons One and Two of "Dogfights" compliment each other so well that I highly recommend buying both disc sets at one time.
The CGI is fabulous. The resulting visuals are arresting, much more lifelike than actual combat footage, which tends to be grainy or washed out. The CGI is so accurate that even the reflections on the fuselage of each aircraft follow the sun as the pilots maintain an orbit above or around a target, or pursue their enemy. The sequences of aerial combat are very fluid and very close to the sort of dogfight scenarios that one might visualize without having had the actual experience of air combat.
The two sets of nine discs have some really beautiful highlights: "Long Odds", a segment that features "Old 666", a B-17 outfitted with thirteen .50 calibre machine guns and heavier armament. That Flying Fortress was tasked with the reconnaissance of Japanese troop movements over various land locations. Old 666 was involved in a 45-minute dogfight, facing an overwhelming Japanese presence. Its pilot, Jay Zeamer won the Medal of Honor for his heroism. Ultimately, the crew of Old 666 became the most Highly decorated B-17 crew of WWII. A great story.
"The Luftwaffe's Deadliest Mission" depicts the unique mission of the SonderKommando Elbe, and elite group of German pilots mustered together in a last ditch effort to stop the allies from entering Deutchland: Using stripped down ME109's, the mission of each pilot was to seek out and ram Allied B-17 and B-24's in Kamikaze fashion. The CGI is great, but the interviews with two of the surviving pilots is especially interesting.
Other notable episodes about World War II also feature CGI depicting aerial engagements involving naval vessels: "The Hunt for the Bismark" and "Death of the Japanese Navy". The latter episode is a CGI adaptation of the actions surrounding Taffy III, and how that task force, which was cut off from the rest of the US Pacific fleet for a few days, managed to inflict serious damage on Japanese naval forces in the straights of the Phillipine islands.
Also noteworthy is "The Tuskegee Airmen" which goes into specific detail about the heroic exploits of the Brave African-Americans who flew P-51 Mustangs in covering missions for the B-24's and B-17's that flew combat missions in the skies over Romania and southern Europe.
Other Highlights: "Death of the Luftwaffe" chronicles Operation Bodenplatte, which took place on New Year's day, 1945 against a forawrd American airbase in Europe; And "Secret Weapons" which are accurate depictions of the ME-262, the Kamikaze, and remotely controlled airplanes.
I counted about three episodes about the air war in Korea, which include "Supersonic" and "Jet vs. Jet". Again, great CGI. Ace Pilots Frederick "Boots" Blesse, Robbie Risner and Ralph Parr give great commentary. The leap in jet technology and the effect it had on aerial combat and the resulting high speed problems each pilot faced are explained in surprising detail.
Of particular interest is the inclusion of about a half-dozen episodes that depict the F4 Phantom and the various missions assigned to their Pilots and Radar Intercept Officers.
I'm a huge fan of the F4 Phantom and the pilots that flew them, so these episodes are truly amazing to me. It's difficult for me to imagine to be at the top front of all that raw power.
"Hell Over Hanoi" with commentary by Fred Olmsted and Dan Cherry F4 is great. "Air Ambush" with commentary by legendary Air Force Ace Robin Olds is also something to see. That episode has a brief flashback - sort of a story within a story - to his days as a P-38 combat pilot in the skies over western Europe during World War II.
"One Inch from Out of Control," features commentary by Willie "Irish" Driscoll and Randy "Duke" Cunningham and is simply put, amazing. At the controls of the USS Constallation's VF-96 "Showtime 100," the Pilot and RIO score three MIG kills and escape a Surface to Air Missile hit which tears their Phantom apart and with only nanoseconds to spare, eject into the waters of the south China Sea.
Other noteworthy Phantom sequences: "The Bloodiest Day" which depicts the May 10, 1972 bombing mission of the Hai Dong Railyards, and "Gun Kills of Vietnam," which shows how effective the addition of a gun pod on the F4 was.
"Dogfights of Desert Storm" is also covered extensively in one episode, and on another disc, an episode covering the exploits of the Israeli Air Defense Force is also included.
There isn't much about World War I, but the series' introductory episode feautres a segment devoted to Eddie Rickenbacker and the techniques of aerial combat that he and other notables such as Manfred Von Richtoffen helped to develop and are still studied by combat pilots today.
To its credit, the History Channel also put together a CGI series that dealt more with ground combat in World War II, but the CGI didn't work all that well. Even though the historical information was accurately depicted, the CGI wasn't nearly what it should have been mostly by virtue of the complicated nature of recreating computer-generated human beings. In other words, the soldiers didn't look real.
"Dogfights" Seasons One and Two are two dvd sets that I highly recommend. Devotees of air combat will find themselves watching many of these episodes several times to get all of the nuance of the air engagements depicted on these dvds.
Similar DVD Movies
Vietnam in HDA&E; Release date: 2011-11-29; DVD
Best price: $11.49
Price in other shops:
Battle 360: Complete Season 1A&E; Release date: 2009-10-27; DVD
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops:
Dogfights: The Greatest Air BattlesA and E Home Video; Release date: 2010-04-27; DVD
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Japan's War in ColourWEA DES Moines Video; Release date: 2005-09-13; DVD
Best price: $5.48
Price in other shops:
Artist Not Provided - Empires of Industry - War Planes of World War II (History Channel)A and E Home Video; Release date: 2005-12-27; DVD
Best price: $12.39
Price in other shops:
Battle 360 - Season One (History Channel) (Steelbook)A and E Home Video; Release date: 2008-08-26; DVD
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
World War II 360A and E Home Video; Release date: 2009-10-27; DVD
Best price: $23.10
Price in other shops:
WWII in HD: The Air WarA&E; Release date: 2010-12-14; DVD
Best price: $14.32
Price in other shops:
Patton 360: The Complete Season 1A and E Home Video; Release date: 2009-10-27; DVD
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops:
Greatest Tank BattlesGAI; Release date: 2011-10-11; DVD
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops: