A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Victory at Sea (1952-1953) Directed by M. Clay Adams Written by Henry Salomon and Richard Hanser Narrated by Leonard Graves 2003 Introductions: Peter Graves Victory at Sea is a 26-part television documentary that focuses mainly (but not exclusively) on naval warfare in World War II from the Allied point of view. Produced with the cooperation of the U.S. Navy, Victory at Sea originally aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) television network from October 1952 to May 1953.  The series won an Emmy for best public affairs program in 1954 and became the template for such historically themed documentaries as CBS’s World War One (1964-1965)  and Thames Television’s The World at War (1974) Produced and co-written (with Richard Hanser) by Henry Salomon and directed by M.Clay Adams, Victory at Sea consists of 26 half-hour  episodes that cover major naval battles and land campaigns in the European and Pacific theaters of war. The series follow...

The Bottom Line  The battle of Okinawa is briskly, briefly discussed in this episode of  Victory at Sea   Since 1952, when NBC first aired its 26-part  Victory at Sea  series of 30-minute documentaries about the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, it has been a staple of both broadcast and cable channels. Millions of viewers in the U.S. and elsewhere have seen at least a few episodes of writer-producer Henry Salomon's ode to the sailors and Marines who fought and often died fighting their German, Italian, and Japanese counterparts for control of the world's oceans. Because battles on the air, land, and sea aren't scripted for the cinematographers as if for a Hollywood production, any major documentary about World War II is, in essence, a montage of shots and snippets of 35-mm film photographed by combat photographers stationed on different ships, aircraft, and military installations. There is actually precious little continuous footage of entire single n...