Korea: the Forgotten War/

With 2 exceptions, this is just a couple dozen episodes of The Big Picture, a Army signal corp propaganda news show dedicated to spinning history and footage in ways favorable to Uncle Sam. If you know your korean war history, you will see several distorions, half truths, and qualified statements designed specifically to give a better, false impression of the conflict and its conditions. There are even a few outright lies. I find the host, Captain Carl Zimmerman, to be insidious and I just generally don't trust him.However, the footage is EXCELLENT. It was shot by very brave signal corps cameraman, some of whom died to bring this footage home. Right up there on the front lines, just about all the footage you'll ever see of korea comes from these examples. Many of those shots I've seen a half dozen times or more in different places, and one documentary on Youtube has them all but in COLOR with better sound!Also, every show they interview at least one veteran, usually 2 and ask them about their experiences. It seems they were given strict orders about how to respond to most of these questions, and if you pay attention and know your history you can perceive them being slightly bullied by Capt. Zimmerman to give the "right spin" to events, but they sneak little hints through every so often, and one Infantry commander refuses to be manipulated to uses his 2 minutes in an awesome monologue in episode 3 or 4, where he pretty much tells the host to shove it!2 episodes are independtly made documentaries, not The Big Picture, and the first is just as bad, the second is, while still propaganda for the US marines, has a few advantages. 1. its in color 2. the narrarator "in the voice of the soldier" is much more believable 3. the ammount of spin is down to reasonable levels and about issues any half patriotic and human person can sympathize with. Its called "This is Korea" on the 2nd discI highly reccomend this as a SUPPLEMENT to your Korean War education, otherwise the propagand WILL most likely severely taint your objective understanding of the war. Make sure youve read The Forgotten War and The Coldest Winter first to get a good idea of what actually happened with regards to things like winter clothing, ammunition stocks, equipment lost, etc... Or if you're a Korean War veteran, you already know, so watch, enjoy, and maybe youll see an old friend on the interview portion.

This set has been maligned by some reviewers for being propaganda from the Cold War and to a degree it is, but still the basics of the conflict are presented. If you want an accurate overview of the Korean War, get the Timeless Media Group set "Korea: The Forgotten War" (I know, they're all called that - you'll have to look for the studio name); that set gives the basic rundown of the war with interviews of veterans and historians. For my part, I have plenty of books on the Korean War to get an idea of what it was about; I wanted films from that era, free from editing, and that's what this set is. This set is a collection of installments of "The Big Picture", a TV show produced by the Army to show the folks at home what Korea was like. The Pusan Perimeter, the battle of Taejon, the retreat from the Yalu in the bitter cold are all covered. So if you want scenes of the same tank rolling past some trees over and over again with commentary by fat, smug historians, get the Timeless Media Group set; if you want the original footage, get this one. I've watched mine several times already.

This was compiled from U.S. Army propaganda footage which softens the true reality of war. It gives good information, but misses on capturing just how intense the fighting was, i.e. "The Bowling Alley" seems to be missing. And the beginning of the war is not portayed correctly, although it does reflect how time was bought until we stood ground at the Pusan Parameter long enough for heavy tanks to arrive, etc. that allowed us to turn the war. Since I haven't compared it to other videos I do not want to be too critical. I wanted to experience, for example, what it might have been like to drive a tank as they were so important, but we weren't even shown inside of a Tank, etc. One last point - the Video fails to honestly explain how the Chinese gave us a day to engage in one of the largest mass evacuations by ship in a short duration perhaps in the history of warfare. Our Marines by the Chosen Resevoir had to fight their way in adverse conditions and losing half their force to make it to the Third Army that was preparing its evacuation to avoid an all out armed conflict with the Chinese Army who had come to the assistance of the North Koreans. Our intelligence failures about the involvement and impact of China's involvement is too down played.

I served in Korea shortly after the "cease fire", and purchased this DVD for its historical content. I was disappointed to find that it tuned out to be a collection of "Big Picture" propaganda films of the 50's era, and sadly lacking in history of the "conflict" outside of sketchy descriptions of the progress of the war. It might better serve as a study of propaganda as it existed during that period, but its usefulness ends there.This should not be confused with another CD collection with a virtually identical title: "Korea: The Forgotten War 1950 - 1953", and subtitled "The true story of a brutal and bloody war." This I found to be a factual presentation of events, well organized and tastefully done - if war can be described in those terms. There are in excess of 25 titles on Amazon combining the words "Korea" and "forgotten" so buyer beware.

Great Documentary, sat down with my Dad and watched the two DVD's in one sitting, my dad is a Korean War Vet and the explanation of this war from beginning to end was very accurate!

I really enjoyed this film. I belong to a Korean War Veterans Color Guard and we're going to watch this sometime soon at the local hall. It makes a nice addition to my collection.

i collect military docs.and movies. i like this one very much as i served during the korean war. semper fi.

I thought it was going to be a modern documentary.It's just a very old compilation of black and white reels.

thank you verry good item