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Carrier 
Actors : .
Director : Maro Chermayeff
Studio : PBS (DIRECT)
by PBS (DIRECT)
Release Date : 2008-05-06
Publisher : PBS (DIRECT)
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Number of Items : 3
EAN : 0841887009461
UPC : 841887009461
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 12 reviews)
List Price : $39.99
Our Price : $27.99
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Product Description |
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CARRIER is a character driven, edge-of-your-seat, nonfiction drama as well as a total immersion in the high stakes world of a nuclear aircraft carrier. CARRIER follows a core group of film participants aboard the USS Nimitz, from the admiral of the strike group to the fighter pilots to the youngest sailors, as they navigate personal conflicts around their jobs, families, faith, patriotism, love, the rites of passage and the war on terror. |
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Uninteresting, Off the Mark |
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The Nimitz class aircraft carriers are tremendously fascinating and this series managed to make it boring. The focus on the private lives of many of the featured crew members was uninteresting and unnecessary. We don't need an aircraft carrier as the backdrop in order to tell petty stories of personal relationships. On top of that, the filmmakers focused on what appear to be among the least inspired and satisfied crew members. To watch this series, I would be left thinking that pretty much everyone in the Navy hates their job and has issues with the command system that has existed in militaries since the beginning of time. It was not as good as I hoped. |
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Owner of Actual DVD - Loved It |
I loved it. It seems as real as it can get considering those guys had cameras in their faces. When some guys would ham it up, you could still see their character behind it all.
The quality of the DVD was excellent. And the choice of music fit the mood and character of the film. Even though much of the ship could not be filmed, I was surprised at times by what was allowed.
Highly recommended, award winning material. Thanks PBS. Take all the reality crap TV off the air and let PBS step in with top notch video. |
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The good and the bad |
Since I served on the Nimitz, maybe Im not objective enough to give it a fair review, but I have to say that I found the 'personal' stories interlaced throughout the documentary to seem too contrived and phony, not to mention uninteresting. None of the conversations seemed real, or even close to real. Too many times I was thoroughly bored by them and wanted to get a better and broader overview of how a carrier works. I think that story is yet to be told. It does work when it concentrates on the various views of the officers and crew, but when it starts to focus on certain sailors, that is when it loses its way, at least for me.
On the positive, there are some great shots of life on the Nimitz, the ones they can show you. There are parts of the ship I know they would not allow cameras. Overall, the cinematography was excellent and so was the camerawork. It does put you on the ship and that is not to be minimized.
If youve never set foot on a carrier, this would be a great introduction. I only wish they had decided to leave the overly melodramatic stuff out. |
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Unsung Heros Sung at Last |
My father worked on aircraft carriers (including the Nimitz), not as a sailor but as an engineer who worked on the designs. So when I found out this show was airing, I marked my calendar so as not to miss a single episode. I was not disappointed. I remember my father describing life aboard aircraft carriers as being like "a city at sea," but I never fully understood what he meant by that until seeing this series. Of course one of the most exciting, suspense-filled episodes is the one where they show the aircraft taking off and landing. But the real story that's uncovered is just how much manpower it takes to make that happen.
I was literally moved tears to see the sacrifices these young recruits make, and my heart goes out to them. All episodes are good but my least favorite of them is episode 8, "True Believers" which explores the many faiths on board the Nimitz. In place of this episode, I would've preferred to see a visit to the ship's hospital or clinic, with interviews with the ship's doctor, dentist, and nurse, to see how the medical personnel fit into the overall scheme of things. Overall, this series gives an unbiased glimpse into the interworkings of an aircraft carrier that highlights the human element. I highly recommend this series to anyone.
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5 stars for the content; waiting on the DVD |
I just watched most of the series off my DVR at one sitting. "HD Collector's" anti-pre-review opinion baffles me. We who have seen the show have every reason to review it here. Since this hasn't been released yet, one important reason to do a review here and now is to help encourage Americancivilwar and PBS and whoever to put this series out on the market. Why should they publish it if there's no buzz, no viewer support?
I'm writing this to help get it out there so HDCollector actually has the option of collecting it. Duh.
But also, of course the DVD itself and the extras are worth knowing about, and when/if this comes out I'll report on those aspects. But whether it's a superb DVD set or just average in terms of the extras and the quality of DVD reproduction, at least 90% of the overall value of the set is the content--is what I just watched on my big screen.
And that was amazingly good, as most of the other reviewers have noted--it didn't impose a Navy PR scam or an antiwar screed on the story. You get the an honest, nuanced view of life on an American carrier.
It even got me a little weepy at the end, watching the air controller's reunion with her two kids after moving heaven and earth to get them there.
A truly worthy show, and one other documentarians should watch to see how you can do a great job with the sort of thing that usually just gets a propaganda treatment, either pro or con. The praise from the Navy guys who wrote reviews says it all.
BTW this is being offered by PBS Home Video for [...] but I'm inclined to wait for it to go through Americancivilwar, because I want to support Americancivilwar's great peer review system. |
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