On DVD: Popular Mechanics New Technology of War

Directed By: Ernie Schultz, ESA Entertainment

From the editors of Popular Mechanics comes this 2 DVD set of five episodes dealing with the future of war. Or more specifically how new and developing technology will change the way we fight. There is a separate episode for land, sea and air and also episodes for counter terrorism and future warfare.

The Movie

When I was a teenager an Uncle, much to the chagrin of my Mother, gave me a box full of old Popular Mechanics magazines. There was about a decades worth from the mid sixties up through the mid seventies. Besides all of the usual stuff about how to build your own boat or how to scientifically place your speakers to get the best fidelity from your new reel to reel tape deck there were tons of articles about new war gear. Articles on the introduction of the AH-1 Cobra or the SR-71 Blackbird and about teething problems with new technology like with M16, but what had to be the coolest thing about having a whole decade’s view was to be able to look at something like the F-14 Tomcat and watch it go from pipe dream to entering service. Comparing a decades worth of magazines, ignoring the fact that the magazines are thirty to forty years old,  to a couple of DVD’s is a little silly, first off the magazines had all those articles about what’s new in Detroit’s line up for 1967 and how to decide on either a cassette tape deck or an eight track deck and the DVD’s have 225 minutes of video about the future of war, but if what your looking for is a primer about how current and future technology will transform the way we fight over the next twenty or thirty years, or in the case of the magazines how we fought the last twenty or thirty years, I think the DVD’s win by a wide margin.

First off the DVD’s are designed as an overview, an attempt to give you the big picture about how the US plans to fight in the near future. The DVD’s are broken up into five episodes of around 45 minutes each. I imagine they were originally produced to air on TV, but I am unaware if they ever did. Each episode concentrates on one aspect of conflict. Ground Forces, Air Power, Sea Power,  and on the bonus disc; Counter Terrorism, The Future of War. Each episode starts out with a recap of the state of the art, then expands with a short history lesson. After you have a little perspective, you learn how developing technologies and the evolution of existing technology will change the way we fight. After watching all of the episodes you pick up on certain themes like miniaturization, remote control and communication all of which are explored in even more detail in the last episode, The Future of War.

Second the DVD really gives you the big picture. It’s not individual pieces of gear I remember so much as how everything will work together. Such there is a bunch of material on the F22 and F35, UAVs and the next class of Destroyers and Cruisers but what I remember most is the communications, and how it flowed both ways up and down the chain and across the world.

Third the DVD takes up a lot less shelf space than a decade of magazines.

9/10

The Video

The normal aspect ratio video for this is as you would expect, mostly stock footage mixed with new CGI and some new interview footage. Even the stock footage is excellent for the most part. The only examples of really poor quality video are some of the stock footage of night vision and video from ordinance. The CGI work is uniformly excellent. There are a few shots that are drastically inferior to the rest of the CGI shots. I tend to believe that these shots must be stock footage. There was one interviewee wearing a shirt with a small red checked pattern that I did notice some bloom on. The blacks were solid and all of the video, except for some of the stock footage mentioned before was crisp and sharp. For this genre the video was excellent.

7/10

The Audio

The audio was presented in Dolby Digital. The mix was excellent, the score was subtle and very good if a little repetitive. I did not notice any distortion and I didn’t have to ride the volume control just to hear everything with out getting blasted. Really the only knock is that there was no surround sound.

7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

The packaging is a the standard DVD case with out the locking tabs. It’s got an insert like a loose leaf notebook to hold the extra DVD. The artwork is pretty cool and accurately and clearly describes what you are getting. There are no subtitles or alternate languages. In a sense there are not any extras at all, unless you count the second DVD as an extra. In that case it’s got an extra 90 minutes of programming.

7/10

In its scope and depth and cohesiveness this DVD is a cut above other offerings in this genre. The material is presented in a way that is clear and straightforward and in non sensationalist way without any glaring and gross errors that would undermine any in the material you were being presented with. The individual episodes are unique with very little repetition of information even though there is naturally some overlap in what they cover. I really enjoyed this DVD and I might have actually learned something as well. 

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

The Review

The Movie 9/10

The Video 7/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 7/10

Overall (Not an Average) 9/10

-Mike Young