Can anyone suggest good documentaries on World War I & II?

The World At War comprehensively covers WWII, fantastically well it has to be said.

I saw a fantastic documentary about the fighting between Germany and Russia on the Russian Front. It was titled “The Russian Front: 1941–1945”. Obviously it’s mostly focused on the Russian Front, though it does touch on the more general WWII stuff when it’s relevant.

Also, while it’s Nazi Propaganda rather than a documentary, and therefore is not what you’d call ‘impartial’, I’d highly recommend watching “Triumph of the Will”. It’s an invaluable insight into the Nazi regime, and it’s a brilliantly made piece of wartime propaganda. I’d even go so far as to call it a masterpiece, though I disagree with the subject matter as much as it’s possible to disagree with anything.

I second the recommendation for BBC’s World at War.

I third the World at War series. Someone else just came out with one filmed by the troops doing the fighting that was pretty harrowing. Let me see if I can find the name of that one.

The World at War is an excellent series.
Ken Burns The War is also terrific.

It’s a book, not a film, but The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman is a fantastically engaging read about how the first World War was begun and how it progressed up to the end game.

Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of Our Fathers

If you can find it, the first and second series of Battlefield are excellent (avoid the fourth, fifth and sixth though as they are bad retreads, but the Vietnam ones are outstanding). You might be able to get it on loan from a library.

I second Ken Burns’ The War.

I was going to suggest @smilingheart1 ‘s contribution, but, looks like you all have it covered.
I did just learn recently while reading up in the new Spielberg film “Warhorse” due out Dec. 28
that 10,000,000 horse were killed during WW1. I am looking forward to the release of that film about a boy whose horse is taken by the english army in WW1 and his attempts to find him again.

@Jellie – you don’t watch enough British documentaries – there’s very little conspiracy crap in them.

+1 for The World at War. I’d go so far as to suggest that it’s among the best documentaries ever made. The episode about Iwo Jima and the invasion of Japan had me in tears.

@Coloma if you get the chance you should see the play Warhorse. The on stage horse puppet is so believable you forget about the humans moving it.

It’s already been said, by far the best documentary series is “THE WORLD AT WAR”, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier….. The eleven disc set, twenty six episodes is a must have. Thirty five & a half hours of factual history of WW11.….

@Lightlyseared

I’d love to! I hear it is amazing!

Marcel Ophul’s Le chagrin et la pitié (The Sorrow and the Pity)

“A two-part 1969 documentary film by Marcel Ophüls about the French Resistance and collaboration between the Vichy government and Nazi Germany during World War II. The film uses interviews with a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature of and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism, anglophobia, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, the desire for power, and simple caution.

“TIME magazine gave a positive review of the film, and wrote that Marcel Ophüls ‘tries to puncture the bourgeois myth—or protectively askew memory—that allows France generally to act as if hardly any Frenchmen collaborated with the Germans.’

It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for Best Documentary Feature.”

And I just saw a stunning new documentary on the Nazi propaganda films about the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw.

A Film Unfinished

“A stunning new documentary goes into limited release today, taking a different and absorbing look at the Holocaust. ....Unfinished, the piece, from Israeli director Yael Hersonski, revolves around a never-completed German propaganda film called “Das Ghetto.”

Shot in 1942, the silent film contrasted Jews living in luxury in the Warsaw ghetto, with the poor ones in the street. For years, it was seen as flawed but authentic—until new footage uncovered in 1998 revealed that all the scenes showing privileged Jews were staged.”

Thanks everyone. I will start with The World at War this weekend due to over-whelming popularity. Pretty excited now. I hope I find it.