Search - The History Channel Presents Washington the Warrior on DVD

I'd die for this man.

JOHN GODFREY | Milwaukee ,WI USA | 06/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"That is pretty much the sentiment of many of the soldiers serving under General Washington during the Revolutionary War.
Rightly so. In fact, so much of what we are today we owe to him. He set the stage for so much that followed.
This fine documentary traces the education & evolution of Washington that he obtained from his many years in the military. That career started before the French-Indian Wars. His first experienced success in pre-war diplomatic missions into the Ohio territories claimed by both the French & the British. I got the impression that he was at least, in part responsible for those hostilities commencing in the first place. He suffered embarassing losses to the French in his first command in the 1750's & some sucesses as an aide to British General Edward Braddock. General Braddock was killed in battle leaving Washington again in command of troops. This was essential to his growth as a leader. He was very brave, somtimes foolishly so. He was a colonial officer & all he wanted to be was an officer in the regular British army with his own command. But that was not going to happened. He was formally polite, reserved & self taught to behave as the gentry of the day acted. But he was loved by his men, most of them of low birth & farmers. He could inspire men to great things. If he did not win the revolution, it is important to realize that he did not lose it.
He was also the template for other generals who followed his example into the presidency. Two generals, Grant & Eisenhower were more sucessful as generals than they later were as president. Few men in history have been able to resist absolute power when it was available to them. Washington didn't even have to fight for it. To be king was there for him if he so desired. He truly loved liberty & justice over power.
This is a fine addition to the library of any school's history
dept. & has been shown recently on the History Channel. It is a bit narrow in scope but, it has the advantage right now of being the newest dvd on The Father of Our Country."

Interesting Look at Washington

EJA2ndCT | New England | 10/18/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Relatively well made film, the computer generated graphics that created larger number of soldiers on the battlefield and some of the other scenes was some of the best I have seen. Washington's portayer did a very good job even though he spoke VERY little during the entire film. My only issue with this was the filming in Lithuania and nothing against Lithuanians but while watching the story something just did not appear "right".

Very informative and energetic, can help attract even greater attention to one of the great people in American History."

GREAT PRODUCTION

Kristy L. Patterson | 06/21/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This was a very unique view of a man I have only seen on money and paintings. School and college do not do this man justice. However, in this program you really get a better idea of the man and how antimated he was with his men and in stressful situations."

Outstanding

magellan | Santa Clara, CA | 04/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I thought this was just an outstanding presentation about Washington. I've watched probably several dozen History channel shows about the revolution and the colonial period, and this was my favorite. The production qualities are impressive. Thousands of extras were used, and the long lines of marching army columns can be seen to stretch off into the distance in some shots. It's very realistic.

The show covers Washington's career from his early 20s until his final victory in the Revolutionary war. It's fascinating to see how he learned from his early mistakes, eventually developing the skill and judgement that would stand him above his peers. As someone once said, judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. He did this by losing almost every battle he ever fought. But he never lost big enough so that he didn't preserve enough resources to continue to fight on. it's basically no different from how guerrilla warfare has worked in the 20th century against more well equipped western nations.

Overall this is a very informative and enjoyable episode, and at two hours long, twice the usual length, which is enough time to get into details the other one hour shows don't. They interview some top writers and historians, including Joseph Ellis, author of a brief but very fine bio on Washington entitled His Excellency, George Washington. He's head of the history dept. at some first-rate mid-west college, can't recall where, but anyway, he's a respected scholar. As someone new to this area of history (except for what I had to learn in school like everyone else) I found this to be a painless and enjoyable way to learn more.

By the way, the show was filmed in Lithuania and a Lithuanian production company produced it. I'm half Latvian (which is just south of Lithuania) and was interested to see that some of these shows are being made in the Baltics. For one thing, the Hessians that Washington defeated by crossing the Delaware are related to the Lithuanians since they were from Prussia and the Prussian language is linguistically related to Lithuanian and Latvian. So it's actually quite apropos that an episode about the life of Washington was made in this part of the world."