PARIS 1919

PARIS 1919 - 2009 (TV)

RATED - NR but probably PG-13 for some graphic archival pictures of dead soldiers in WWI. 

RATINGS - 7 AMAZON (4.5/5), 364 NETFLIX (3.2/5), 41 IMDB (7.2/10).

AWARDS- Winner of Banff World Television Award for BEST HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY.

THEMES - Justice, relationships.

STORY - This docudrama with both archival footage and drama tells the story of the peace talks in Paris in 1919 at the end of WWI which ended in the Treaty of Versailles.  WWI was truly a world war and at the end dozens of nations wanted reparations or a piece of the spoils. They all convened in Paris for what they thought would be a 3-4 week conference to settle all the post war divisions. Nations' borders were being redrawn and people groups were being shuffled around like livestock.  To Paris came kings and queens and caliphs and emirs and THEN the deity, Woodrow Wilson.  The United States had entered the war and ended the war so everyone looked to the U.S. for answers and Woodrow Wilson was godlike, at least in the beginning.  A large conference room was set up where nations could present their case in front of the representatives from Japan, Italy, Great Britain, France and Woodrow Wilson (U.S.). Japan was eliminated from the group after a short time and Italy had little influence in the end. This is a well done summary of a behind the scenes look at the Paris Peace Conference which stretched on for six months as countries jockeyed for position on the world scene, unknowingly setting the stage for WWII as they punished Germany into the ground, creating a backlash that produced evil like the world had never known and thought impossible. Even today we see and feel the effects of this peace treaty which spawned the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations and the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson. Another slice of history which helps to understand the world we live in today.  Lu G. for Lu's Reviews.  07/03/2010.

LINKS - IMDB, NETFLIX