War Stories: 50 Years of Classic Combat Movies

War Stories: 50 Years of Classic Combat Movies
War Stories

Starring such legendary luminaries as RUDOLPH VALENTINO, GARY COOPER, JAMES CAGNEY, MONTGOMERY CLIFT and ROBERT MITCHUM, these 18 films - some on DVD for the first time - vividly illustrate the horrors of battle as well as illuminating wartime love stories and even a couple of downright comedies - all with war at their heart. No fan of war movies or classic Hollywood should miss out on this remarkable collection!

Disc One
In the Border States (1910) (17:00)
The Birth of a Nation (1915) (187:00)
The Heart of Humanity (1918) (110:00)

Disc Two
Abraham Lincoln (1930) (95:00)
A Farewell to Arms (1932) (78:00)
British Intelligence (1940) (61:00)
They Raid By Night (1942) (73:00)

Disc Three
Tiger Fangs (1943) (59:00)
Gung Ho! (1943) (88:00)
This is the Army (1943) (121:00)
Submarine Base (1943) (65:00)

Disc Four
Corregidor (1943) (73:00)
Blood on the Sun (1945) (94:00)
A Walk in the Sun (1945) (117:00)

Disc Five
The Big Lift (1950) (120:00)
Go For Broke! (1951) (92:00)
Battle of Blood Island (1960) (64:00)
Ski Troop Attack (1960) (63:00)

Approx. Running Time: 1577 min
Customer Review: Better than Nothing...Maybe
While it's nice to have a professional DVD release of "Heart of Humanity," the word professional must be placed in very large quotes. The print might be fine, as has been mentioned by another reviewer, but the digital treatment is not particularly good. This is a 100 minute film that is packed onto a single-sided disc that already contains "Birth of a Nation"...which is a three hour movie on its own! (That's right, each disc here contains over 300 minutes of footage - a ridiculous amount.) Point being, "Heart of Humanity" has actually been accorded less disc space than would be found on a DVD-5 (roughly 2/3rd of the space, to be exact), and significantly less than would be granted to it on its own DVD-9 disc. The end result is a print that pixelates and motion blurs to a degree that is only passable due to a lack of any other copies on the market. (Unless one counts Grapevine Home Video's semi-professional release.) Of course, the same goes for all of the films. And war movies, being action films, rely on quite a bit of frenetic motion, meaning motion blur crops up rather a lot. Ultimately, it's better to have "Heart of Humanity" than not to have it, as it is an interesting silent film from the nearly forgotten husband and wife team of Allen Holubar and Dorothy Phillips, but I'm wondering if I wouldn't have been better off buying the Grapevine Home Video version.
Customer Review: Some False Advertising, but has Heart of Humanity
The set is disappointing on one hand, because despite the advertising, the only silent movies that are really in the set are In the Border States, Birth of a Nation, and Hearts of Humanity- so Four Horseman and Hearts of the World are missing. But for fans of the genra, the set is worth it for Hearts of Humanity- a good transfer, at a good speed, with good music, of a good film.