January 1, 1970

Jack LeVien’s masterful 26-episode documentary of Churchill in World War II, “The Valiant Years,” has been remastered in a 7-disk DVD.

Although hagiographic and lacking criticism, LeVien’s epic is widely admired. The film footage is simply fantastic, providing a real insight into Churchill and the major war of the last century. The narrator is Richard Bur­ton, who despised Churchill politically, but a job’s a job, and Burton’s dislike is not appar­ent in his nar­ra­tive—nor was it in his later role as WSC in the orig­i­nal “Gath­er­ing Storm” production.