I am very interested in Soviet history and was looking forward to checking this out but sadly I couldn't take any more and switched off after about 20 minutes. Whilst some of the factual content was interesting and made me go back and re-examine other sources regarding the Soviet famine, the documentary's style is unwatchably sensationalist. The narrator's voiceovers are laden with faux-gravitas and incredibly pejorative language. He nearly spits the word 'communist' like he's leading a McCarthy-era US commie witch hunt.
The interviews are very one-sided and strangely seem to have been conducted in the 1980s; why, given this was made in 2008, did they not interview current experts in the field instead of digging out old footage of historians from 30 years ago? What it lacks in evidence it tries to make up for by bombarding you with explosive sounds and graphics, which becomes very old very quickly.
The overall quality of the documentary is about the level and style you'd expect from one of those shows constantly rerun of the History channel. I guess I've been spoiled by the high quality and measured tone of BBC historical documentaries, but this just feels tacky and lacking in objectivity to me. I'm really surprised by the number of glowing reviews this has received on here.
The interviews are very one-sided and strangely seem to have been conducted in the 1980s; why, given this was made in 2008, did they not interview current experts in the field instead of digging out old footage of historians from 30 years ago? What it lacks in evidence it tries to make up for by bombarding you with explosive sounds and graphics, which becomes very old very quickly.
The overall quality of the documentary is about the level and style you'd expect from one of those shows constantly rerun of the History channel. I guess I've been spoiled by the high quality and measured tone of BBC historical documentaries, but this just feels tacky and lacking in objectivity to me. I'm really surprised by the number of glowing reviews this has received on here.