Apocalypse: World War I

"Moans from all sides. The wounded crawl into the craters in search of shelter. The rain continues, the water in the holes rise. Unable to move, the wounded drown. An officer next to me is crying. My men are in shock. I have to climb over the dead bodies. A hand reaches up and grabs me, in horror I pull a living man out of the pile of corpses." This documentary is by far one of the best narrated and most enriching I have ever seen. It is long, 260 minutes in 5 episodes. Step by step you are told about the apocalypse of the early 20th century. Step by step you learn about all the horrors that happened during the war and beyond. It ranges from a political world view, the July crisis of 1914, to outside events, such as the genocide of the Armenians by the Turks or the Spanish flu, to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Above all, however, it is about the First World War and the military events over the four years of the war, the troop build-ups, the battles, the victories and defeats, as well as all the heavy losses. In many documentaries about war and suffering, the dramatic factor is always an essential part of the atmosphere. Often, attempts are made to take this to the extreme in order to make the events as heartbreaking as possible, which unfortunately has mostly the opposite effect. However, Apocalypse: World War I is able to portray this dramatic atmosphere masterfully. Of course, I didn't watch the documentary in one sitting, but despite the several interruptions, each time it was as if I had never stopped watching. Each time the documentary sucked me in and never let go. The horror of this war is masterfully portrayed and even the generally horrific images, if anything, sucked me deeper into the action. The documentary consists completely of specially colorized and edited footage. In the German version in which I saw it, Christian Brückner plays the role of the narrator, who is particularly well known for providing Robert De Niro with his German dubbing voice. His raspy voice gives this five-parter exactly the atmosphere it needs, which is enhanced by the fact that there are no interviews with any historians or something like that. Unfortunately, I have to say that these interviews often reduce the atmosphere and the fascination for the subject. Here, these interviews are replaced by the work and writings of those who lived at the time; diary entries, letters, poems and speeches often come to the foreground and put us in the shoes of those who were shaped by the events. Politicians, civilians, writers, workers and economists of the time are given the floor, but especially the soldiers, of every nation, all those who experienced and passed through hell on earth. Some fell in the vastness of no man's land, some survived to tell us more about this unique slaughterhouse. If you watch this documentary, you afterwards should know almost everything there is to know about the First World War and the events surrounding it. Here, episode one and especially three are absolute highlights that are unmatched in their fascinating style. Never before has the conflict that brought the whole of Europe into absolute madness and the endless abyss been shown so closely in a documentary. Never before had human lives been sacrificed so senselessly in such large numbers, for nothing. No meaningful conclusion had been drawn from the largest and bloodiest conflict in history up to that point. Only further injustices followed, only further greed for power and selfishness. Revenge was expected, and it was not long in coming. "For three days we lay in the shell holes, facing death, expecting it at any moment. One shell buries the dead, the other pulls them out again."