Legacy; 8; Verdun
- Series
- Legacy
- Episode Number
- 8
- Episode
- Verdun
- Producing Organization
- National Educational Television and Radio Center
- Contributing Organization
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/512-qr4nk3749d
- NOLA Code
- LEGC
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- Description
- Episode Description
- In a grim, reflective documentary, the Legacy camera revisits the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of mans recent history. It is Verdun, France, where Germany concentrated its military force mid-way during World War in an effort to bleed the French nation to death or at least to point of surrender. The half-hour episode sees Verdun and the war of which it was part as one of the worlds sorriest examples of misused power. In 1916, as the focus of World War I reverted from the Eastern to the Western front, the German strategies under General Eric von Falkenhayn resolved to disrupt the Allied consolidation by eroding the remaining French strength. With Russia already paralyzed and Italy weak, Falkenhayn observed, only France remained to stand with the British in opposing the German war machine. France has almost arrived at the end of her military effort, the general told his staff. If her people can be made to understand clearly that in a military sense they have nothing more to hope for, breakthrough would eb reached, and Englands best sword knocked out of her hand. Falkenhayn selected a tactic of slow attrition rather than massive attack, and chose Verdun as the site of the gradual slaughter. The objective was not to take the town but to lure the French forces (under Petain) into a constant defense of it, and to cut down the defenders, wave by wave. But the plan proved as disastrous for the German military as for their opponents. During the ten-month battle which neither side won (the front having shifted only a few miles) one million two hundred twenty thousand men fell, of whom 700,000 died. And of the dead both sides counted an equal number. The visual story of Verdun is told with more than seventy-five photographs taken during the time of the battle and with recent film footage, and much of the narrative consists of the words of the men who fought and survived the terrible carnage. Verdun: written and directed by Lane Slate. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Series Description
- Legacy is a series which, in ten half-hour episodes, studies some of the forces that have influenced the development and shape of Western civilization. Filmed in France, England, Italy, Germany, and the United States, Legacy begins in 301 A.D. and ends in our own day, touching on such representative historic determinants as the building of the cathedral of Notre Dame of Amiens, the birth of modern medicine in the skepticism of Paracelsus, the political decay of Florence, the flourishing of absolute monarchy under Louis XIV, the struggle between Marxism and Victorianism, and the tragic waste of World War I. Each program is a separate, self-contained essay on a significant trend, personality, or event. The series by no means sees the development of Western man as a clear, affirmative rise toward the perfection of the human kind. The march of history, on the contrary, all too often seems to go backward as time itself advances, and our legacy is the result of nearly as many errors, weaknesses, and catastrophes as it is of triumphs and miracles. Even in the greatest glories of history are the seeds of ruin; the Versailles of Louis XIV represents both the zenith and the death knell of French absolute monarchy; the Crystal Palace was, unknown to the society that built it, an architectural swan-song for the passing Victorian age. As one institution is undermined another sometimes a better, sometimes not rises in its place. Hence, according to the series, historys only reliable constant is amelioration but change, and the more we understand of the changes of the past and the forces that brought them about, the more we can see in our present and future. Legacy does not attempt to teach history, and contains no trace of the classroom lecture; rather, in a more artistic manner, it brings alive, through image and sound, some of the surging moments of Western mans creativity and folly. Legacy is a 1965 production of National Educational Television. Lane Slate is the producer. Lane Slate and Jim Trainor are the cameramen. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1965-11-21
- Asset type
- Episode
- Topics
- History
- Rights
- Copyright National Educational Television & Radio Center November 21, 1965
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Camera Operator: Trainor, Jim
Camera Operator: Slate, Lane
Director: Slate, Lane
Producer: Slate, Lane
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
Writer: Slate, Lane
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2337509-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2337509-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Legacy; 8; Verdun,” 1965-11-21, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 17, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-qr4nk3749d.
- MLA: “Legacy; 8; Verdun.” 1965-11-21. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 17, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-qr4nk3749d>.
- APA: Legacy; 8; Verdun. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-qr4nk3749d