The History of the Machine Gun
FOCUSFilm Entertainment
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The History of the Machine Gun is a documentary originally aired on the Discovery Channel, featuring a birth-and-life historical profile of the machine gun told through archival footage and photograph, academia, and historian narration. This three-hour documentary is split into three one-hour parts; White Smoking Devil (invention to WWI), The Gun Comes Home (WWII to Al Capone) and The Age of the A.K. (the modern era).

This is a classic, diamond-in-the-rough documentary that is lacking in production value, but chock-full of the kind of historical anecdotes that will glue you to the couch, and inspire weeks of the kind of "Did you know...?" statements the Discovery Channel is know for. A sample? Did you know that the inventor of the machine gun also invented a toilet flushing mechanism, and the mechanics behind some of the world's most efficient crop seeders? Didn't think so.

Like any good, dark-horse documentary, The History of the Machine Gun is captivating in its vast and sheer mastery of the subject -- kind of like that documentary on ship building you never thought you'd watch, but then spent the better part of a weekend brushing up on your "who's-who" of historical shipwrights.

Told chronologically in three segments, The History of the Machine Gun is as much a history lesson as it is a definitive telling of the history of one of the world's deadliest and most revered guns and its affect on history, culture, society and humanity.

The film takes the viewer on the gun's journey from crop-seeding cousin, to U.S. Civil War invention, to colonial expansion tool, to one of the causes of WWI, to the streets of prohibition Chicago, to terrorism and beyond, all the while putting the gun into its proper historical context. From colonialism to industrialization, WWI to the modern wars of Kosovo and Iraq, The History of the Machine Gun portrays the weapon as the invention it is: born out of opportunity, now woven into the fabric of nations.

This is the kind of 3+ hour documentary that catches you by surprise as you're flipping through the channels. You can't imagine ever wanting to sit down and watch the entire thing, but you just can't help it; held captive on your own couch as the hours melt away. On paper the film seems long-winded and overdrawn, clocking in at just over three hours, but in person it's a captivating documentary along the lines of other great Discovery Channel gems.

Video: How's it look?
4:3. Made-for-tv. Archival footage is what you'd expect, and some interviews with leading academics look like they might have been filmed in the early-80s.

Audio: How's it sound?
Stereo television. Better than that little speaker on the old reel-to-reel projector, but not quite your 5.1 surround.

Extras: What additional goodies are included?

• Very little, save for a fantastic feature that lets you choose any scene in any segment to watch. Sick of WWI? Skip to the Al Capone era.

Closing Thoughts
Fascinating documentary bursting with phenomenal archival material put together with rudimentary production value. Rainy/snowy Sunday? Nothing to do? Put this on and you won't be disappointed.


Review brought to you by our friend Scott @ MonkeysAtWork.com