Category: Action / Adventure - Movie - TV Shows - Television
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.99 Our Price: $19.97YOU SAVE $20.02!
Buy it
DVD Combat - Season 1, Campaign 1
Hailed as one of the best episodic television series about World War II, ABC's Combat! arrives on DVD with its first 16 episodes in a heavily annotated four-disc set that's sure to please its longtime fans. The men of King Company's second platoon (a.k.a. King Two) are the focus of this gritty and realistic series; led by Lt. Gil Hanley (Rick Jason) and Sgt. Chip Saunders (Vic Morrow in an Emmy-nominated performance), King Two fought its way across France for five seasons, beginning in 1962 with the 16 episodes gathered here. The storyline kicks off shortly after D-Day and carries the platoon up to the liberation of Paris, which concluded the season (the second half of season 1 is featured in a separate four-disc set). Cast members rotated in and out of service (Tom Lowell's Pvt. Billy Nelson is apparently killed in "The Celebrity," yet returns to the platoon shortly thereafter), but viewers could count on each episode to deliver both solid action and dramatic direction from the likes of Robert Altman and Burt Kennedy, as well as excellent turns by guest actors as Tom Skerritt and Harry Dean Stanton.
Image's Combat! Season One: Campaign One establishes a watermark for other studios and distributors to follow with their own vintage television DVD sets. Commentary tracks by Robert Altman, first assistant director Michael Caffey, and actor Tom Lowell are featured on three episodes, while several other key participants, including actor Pierre Jalbert (Caje), directors Richard Donner and Ted Post, and Combat! episode guide author Jo Davidmeyer are featured in interviews for the featurette "Memories of Combat!." Davidmeyer also provides interesting factoids about each episode in the scene selection menus. A gallery of production photos rounds out the uniformly excellent supplemental features. Image's comprehensive boxed set is a must-have for devotees of the series and WWII drama in general. --Paul Gaita
I watched this television series back in the 1960's when I was a kid. I loved it then, and I still do. It was great seeing these excellent episodes again. The DVD release is fantastic! Excellent quality especially when you consider these shows are 40 years old. Excellent extras as well...I loved the commentary tracks. If you loved COMBAT! back in the '60's, you'll love these DVD's. If you are a war film fan and never saw COMBAT!, then buy these DVD's...you're in for a treat.
The Best War TV Show Ever
I remember this show when I was growing up. this show had action and adventure. My dad was a WWII vet and he said that it was pretty close to the real thing. I really liked all of the characters, SGT. Saunders, Lt. Hanley and Cage, Littlejhon and Kirby. they were great!
The "Shoe Clerk" Heroes
Watching this series really makes you appreciate the civilian-soldiers (what the Albert Salmi "Regular Army" character in one episode called "the Shoe Clerks") who saved Western Civilization from Fascist tyranny.
This is the first DVD set of the series I have watched and the episodes are rather disjointed, as is pointed out in the interview which is included in the set. We don't really get to know the soldiers in the squad because Producer Robert Altman wanted a more anthology-like feel to the program than it had later, after he left. The episodes I liked best were those that dealt with realistic situations, especially like those of a new man trying to be accepted by the battle-hardened veterans, and there are a few like that in this set. There is also a good, nail-biting episode about a British bomb-defuser. There were also numerous episodes that were simply not realistic and were either played for comedy (one where Shecky Greene's Pvt. Braddock character is mistaken for a Colonel when he is captured by the Germans), or simple action/adventure like the one where Lt. Hanley is sent on a daring mission with a commando (J D Cannon) to rescue a scientist from inside Occcupied France, or another where he is captured by a German General (Albert Paulsen) who uses him to escape the Gestapo who are trying to arrest him for being involved in the Bomb Plot that tried to kill Hitler. As a special bonus also get to see Ted Knight (in his pre-"Ted Baxter" days) play a minor role as a German officer whose comedic talents are already seen as he is trying to listen to his commanding officer and hold an unruly cat at the same time.
Still, in spite of the uneven quality of the different stories, a clear message comes through most of the episodes, that is we repeatedly see the dedication of men who felt they had to carry out their mission, even at the cost of their lives, yet these were not "supermen"-just ordinary fellows put into extraordinary situations. This is enough to get me hooked to the series.
The further adventures of King Company's second platoon are highlighted in all their blazing action and dramatic impact in this four-disc set, which concludes Combat!'s 1962-63 debut season. King Two undergoes a few changes in episodes 17 through 32--Shecky Greene's Pvt. Braddock is absent from the platoon (Greene quit over pay issues) and Jack Hogan, whose Pvt. Kirby first appeared in "The Forgotten Front" (featured in the Combat! Season One: Campaign One boxed set) is now a featured cast member; Emmy nominee Conlon Carter, who would later join the cast as Doc in the third season, appears as an unnamed PVC in disc 3's "Hill 256." The 17 episodes featured here carry the men of King Two to the liberation of Paris, which concludes the season; afterwards, the series would no... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.99 Your Price: $31.99YOU SAVE $8!
Buy it
I watch 2 or 3 episodes every day. Great way to use my time waiting for the MLB playoffs. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 30 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.99 Your Price: $31.99YOU SAVE $8!
Buy it
But here goes, anyway: My picks for best episodes of "COMBAT'S" 2nd season.
BRIDGE AT CHALONS -- Riveting performance by Lee Marvin. I'm not necessarily a fan of these ultra-macho guys, but he's so damn' POWERFUL in this show.
GLOW AGAINST THE SKY ---- Very intense and violent. Of course, had Billy Nelson been wounded this seriously, he would have been shipped home immediately, and never appeared in another "Combat".
THE WOUNDED DON"T CRY---- Very well done. Karl Boehm very sympathetic. The twists and turns near the end will keep you on the edge of your seat.
***Suprise "Hit" episode: "A SILENT CRY"-----typical set-up with
misanthropic soldier (Richard Anderson) whom Saunders gets stuck with. The guy is a braniac who was... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 30 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.99 Your Price: $31.99YOU SAVE $8!
Buy it
It's more of the same as other reviewers. Just terrific, absorbing and great theartre. Enjoy it. Going to watch and episode now. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.99 Your Price: $35.99YOU SAVE $4!
Buy it
Even when I was a 10 year old watching the original Combat! series each Tuesday night, the screenplay writing and abilities of the actors to fulfill the potential of that writing outweighed any of my childhood draw towards simple action/adventure.
Watching these episodes today at age 50, I find that memory has not deluded me with nostolgic overestimation. This is among the most beautiful of dramatic TV writing, born from the tail end of an age known for great scripts. As I remember the series (Season IV has not yet been released as I post this review), this season presented the audience the series at the top of its game -- with the most memorable episodes contained on the Season III Operation II disk set.
I encourage you to not watch this series in the same way... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.99 Your Price: $35.99YOU SAVE $4!
Buy it
