Monday, September 26, 2016

War is still hell

I've just finished watching the DVD of The World Wars, a mostly excellent docu-drama about the First and Second World Wars. The History Channel's reputation has taken a bit of a battering in recent years, broadcasting programs of questionable quality, such as Ancient Aliens.

I found it mostly riveting, but it isn't without flaws. It took some licence with the reenactment of the death of Adolf Hitler. The actor playing him is shown standing alone in a room, taking a cyanide pill, and then shooting himself. He actually committed suicide with his mistress, Eva Braun. They died sitting on a couch in a small room in the Fuehrerbunker in Berlin.

The DVD contains additional material, which includes 5-minute biographies of the major players in the Second World War. Hitler's biography has a whopping mistake. It shows a picture of what it asserts is Hitler's dead body after he committed suicide. This picture has been in circulation for years. The man in it, who had a "Hitler" moustache, has never been identified, but it has been conclusively proven that it is not of Hitler. This is very sloppy research, and inexcusable.

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