Customer Reviews

Catherine the Great

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is OBVIOUSLY some confusion here. Amazon.com has somehow gotten the not-so good Catherine Zeta-Jones series mixed up with the EXCELLENT PBS documentary!!! (This happened once before, see my BURN review for the mix-up in formats on that release.)

If you look at the box, you will see that it is NOT Catherine Zeta-Jones, but EMILY BRUNI (who does a wonderful job as Catherine.) This is the PBS documentary, not the Zeta-Jones series!!! Amazon.com needs to fix the mix-up, or a lot of people will be very confused here. This PBS documentary is EXCELLENT, and Emily Bruni is GREAT. So, if you want to order the PBS documentary, I'd suggest you wait until it's finally released to make sure you get the right one...(I'd be pretty upset if I got Catherine Zeta-Jones instead of Emily Bruni.)

The PBS documentary is wonderful, and Emily Bruni is a seductive, intelligent and fascinating Catherine. As for the Catherine Zeta-Jones version...well...she was good in Chicago...

Once in a while Amazon.com does mix things up, it is rare, but it does happen. So make SURE you are getting the PBS documentary,and not the Catherine-Zeta Jones version.

I have both versions of Catherine the Great, A&E in their version was lacking in many areas and I was dismayed that they turned one of the great people of the world into something trival. The PBS version which with Bruni is exceptional, though with all documentaries and movies time is trunicated and not all history is told PBS does an admirable job and presenting the basic facts.

The documentary was a joy to watch and the scholars from Europe comparing her to other great people fits.

Not the Zeta-Jones version, but not the best documentary either. For example, during the documentary I kept wondering why Tsar Elizabeth imprisoned her "son" Ivan, naming her childish and unfit-to-rule nephew Peter as her heir. Then she was so anxious for Peter to have an heir that when none appeared after several years of marriage, she encouraged Catherine (Peter's wife) to have an affair with a young officer so she would get pregnant somehow. If Elizabeth was so very anxious for an heir to solidify her dynasty, why did she imprison her own son?

Answer (from further research): Ivan was not Elizabeth's son, but the son of a previous empress. Elizabeth had deposed the child Ivan and his regents in a coup d'etat.

If this documentary can make, and repeatedly mention, an error of such magnitude . . .

Also, the "period" dancing scene often shown to set a mood has absolutely nothing to do with period dances of the time. In general the costuming etc. is not very good.

This is not the same Catherine the Great featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones. The person in the picture does not even resemble Catherine Zeta-Jones. This version features Emily Bruni as Catherine and is more of a documentary much like Russia: Land of the Tzars. Dispite this mistake in listing this version featuring Emily Bruni is a wonderful peace of work that I think any true lover of Russian history will enjoy.

It is an splendid and very informative docu-drama.

But I think, it is not acceptable anymore that this kind of cultural pearls of European making, are only available for people in Amerika and Canada.

I have been forced to do illegal things, in order to be able to see it, and I have to write the subtitles myself!

This very frustrating and onjust policy with region-codes, simply must change.

Kind regards,

Miranda Wentink

The PBS Video "Catherine the Great" is well done. The superb cast brings the audience into the action and you have the feeling that you were there watching the intrigue as history was being made. Another great PBS production.

This documentary does a fine job of discussing the life of Catherine the Great with details which many people do not know. It is well done.