Customer Reviews

Civilisation: Complete Series

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"Civilisation" was a BBC series from the David Attenborough days when some really very interesting shows got made and aired, Monthy Python for one, and this superb, subjective survey of European art. I don't think anyone would make it now primarily because Lord Clark believed in the soul and that the purpose of art was to supply the soul with nourishment. It's not the present, prevailing view about art, which he didn't have any sympathy for. It's not all inclusive, he skipped what didn't touch him. But the enthusiasms of well-informed, intelligent man are worth listening to.

This is not an art history course, nor an introduction to art. You probably need some background, some general information about European history to follow it. At the same time, it's not intellectual showing off: Clark told us about art that moved him and told us why. Works were included because of the feelings evoked, with a historical context added.

Episode 2 on Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals is the best television show ever made.

Lucid, engaging, and comprehensive does not adequately describe Sir Kenneth Clark's magnificent survey into Western Civilization. For a series over 40 years old, the audio is remastered, the transfers are remarkably clean, and the content and opinions of the host hardly seem dated. Clark effectively interweaves music, art, science and architecture into a broad sweeping portrait that defines Western thought. For those critics who find Clark's praise for Western art either superficial or superfluous have probably been watching and listening to the typical PBS tripe directed to an audience with a junior high vocabulary with an attention span to match.

Clark is a splendid presenter and teacher whose enthusiasm for his work clearly shows. It's all here, from the ancient Greeks to the modern age (well actually, circa 1969 when the series was made), while "Civilization" is a wonderful introduction to the "humanities"--something that they used to teach in college, but now supplanted by courses and programs of dubious relevance and replete with politically correct content.

If you snoozed during your mandatory art or humanities courses in college or just found them as an opportunity to catch up on some other homework during lecture, let Sir Kenneth Clark explain to you why these things still matter today and help to define our culture and our lives. For slightly more than what you would pay for one class at a local community college, you can enjoy a most superlative achievement in truly "higher education."

Unlike the virtually unletterd commentators and hosts on the "History Channel" who apparently utter a profound "Wow, cool!" every time they are confronted with some architectual wonder or historical artifact, Clark's presentation, scholarly but never "stuffy," is a refreshing and welcome antidote.

Clark's remarks and insight are as on target as they are illuminating--see the installment featuring Michaelangelo and the Renaissance and you will understand why. Now, if only the BBC would release Alistair Cooke's "America" with Region 1 encoding for all of us to enjoy on this side of the pond...

I bought this series on DVD as an exercise in nostalgia. A couple of radio critics had said the programmes were dated and you couldn't get away with Clark's patrician style of lecturing today.

Maybe... But listen to what he's saying. Look at what he's showing us. Within a few minutes I was sitting bolt upright in my chair. This was no exercise in nostalgia. What Clark was saying was more relevant today than when this series was first broadcast in 1969. Then the West was menaced by Communism. Now it's menaced by militant Islam - just as it has been in the past as Clark points out. What seemed like quaint references to the religious foundations of Western civilisation in the atheistic 1960s now have a new relevance. They show what we're fighting for. The series helps define where we came from and where we're going. It's a classic and like all classics speaks beyond its time. Critics of Western civilisation, especially those who want to destroy it, should view the programmes as well. They'd learn a lot and might become more civilised.

Now Kenneth Clark's "Civilisation" has been released on Blu-ray and it keeps getting better and better.

Suffice to say the series looks sumptuous in Blu-ray. In fact, it looks better than most people would have seen it when it was first shown in 1969! Or for that matter any time since on TV. I first saw these programmes on a small screen in black and white. The loss was enormous. By making the series in 35mm the production team locked up an enormous amount of detail in the film. Only now with HD and Blu-ray can we appreciate what is there.

The series was originally broadcast in a 4:3 format - before widescreen TV came in - and that's retained for this Blu-ray edition. No trimming, so we see the entire image. This means black margins on either side of a modern screen, but that's better than losing valuable parts of the carefully composed images. The colours are gorgeous and you can see every detail in the works of art. Clark now seems to come into the room. I noticed facial expressions - sometimes a twinkle in the eye - that I never noticed before. These make him more human and his mandarin style more acceptable.

Don't get hung up on the title. There are endless ways we can interpret civilisation. The BBC considered many titles including "One Thousand Years: Reflections on Art and Western Civilisation." This gets nearer to what the programmes are about, but was too ponderous. Clark said it would have been easy in the 18th century. Then you could have entitled the series: "Speculations on the Nature of Civilisation as illustrated by the Changing Phases of Civilised Life in Western Europe from the Dark Ages to the Present Day." But this was impracticable so they settled on what we have now. In the end this is one man's view of Western civilisation and he has many interesting things to say about it.

Of course, not everyone will agree with everything Kenneth Clark says. How could they? You would have to be a clone of Kenneth Clark to do that. But so what? The series has sweep and stimulates ideas. If you're one of those people who has dismissed these programmes out of hand - even laughed at them - think again. This series was groundbreaking when it first came out. It was enormously ambitious and pioneered many techniques we now take for granted. From it flowed a huge number of documentaries that have graced our screens ever since. Kenneth Clark was a highly intelligent and knowledgeable. Only a fool would reject him out of hand. Many of the things he said are relevant today and have more resonance now than when he first uttered them.

Don't get hung up on the title. There are endless ways we can interpret civilisation. The BBC considered many titles including "One Thousand Years: Reflections on Art and Western Civilisation." This gets nearer to what the programmes are about, but was too ponderous. Clark said it would have been easy in the 18th century. Then you could have entitled the series: "Speculations on the Nature of Civilisation as illustrated by the Changing Phases of Civilised Life in Western Europe from the Dark Ages to the Present Day." But this was impracticable so they settled on what we have now.

There are 13 programmes - each 50 minutes long. They are concerned only with Western Europe. 'Obviously,' said Clark, 'I could not include the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome, because to have done so would have meant another ten programmes, at least; and the same was true of China, Persia, India and the world of Islam. Heaven knows, I had taken on enough ... Should I have then dropped the word "Civilisation"? I didn't want to, because the word had triggered me off, and remained a kind of stimulus; and I didn't suppose that anyone would be so obtuse as to think that I had forgotten about the great civilisations of the pre-Christian era and the East.'

Alas, there were! You can still find critics who rubbish the series because Clark failed to tell the whole history on mankind in 13 programmes. In the end this is one man's view of Western civilisation - 'the new developments of the European mind,' as he put it - and he has many interesting things to say about it.

Clark discussed the making of "Civilisation" in the Foreword to his book on the series. He points out that television is a different medium from print. You can go into intricate arguments on the written page, deal with abstract thought, add footnotes and qualifications and really spread yourself. With television time is limited. Every subject must be simplified. 'Only a few outstanding buildings or works of art can be used as evidence,' he said. 'Only a few great men can be named...Generalisations are inevitable...'

But television can do things that are impossible in print. 'I am convinced,' he writes, 'that a combination of words and music, colour and movement can extend human experience in a way that words alone cannot do. For this reason I believe in television as a medium, and was prepared to give up two years writing to see that could be done with it.'

So the series was a gigantic experiment. No-one at that time had attempted anything as ambitious with so much filmed on location. "Civilisation" raised the standards of television. The medium was more than a Punch and Judy show. It could deal with serious subjects and communicate with a vast audience many of whom, at that time, lacked the opportunities to find out about the arts. The series may creak a little now - Clark himself thought it would be out of date in two or three years - but what is remarkable is how well it stands up to modern viewing. It's an exaggeration to say "Civilisation" is ground zero: intelligent television starts here. There were other intelligent progammes on TV at that time, but nothing on this scale. "Civilisation" is part of our heritage - essential viewing. Like a splendid wine it improves with age.

When first screened the series had enormous impact and changed people's lives. Clark received letters of praise from UK cabinet ministers (including a future prime minister) and three cardinals. People on the point of suicide changed their minds and carried on living. A student - as you can read in another review - changed his universty course to art and Clark was mobbed like a film star when he came to the United States.

Inevitably there were critics. Satirists sniped. So did jealous intellectuals. Why hadn't they been chosen to present the series instead of Clark? Some were so wide of the mark you wonder how anyone could take them seriously. Still, you can have a good laugh at their absurdity. Marxists - remember them? - hated the series. Others claimed Clark's 'message was fundamentally positive and optimistic.' All Clark discussed, they asserted, was the steady march of progress of Western civilisation - a civilisation superior to all others. He did no such thing. The programmes contain scepticism and many doubts. Episode 12 is called 'The Fallacies of Hope.'

Unbelievably, a university lecturer complained about Clark's 'sophisticated vocabulary.' You needed a dictionary, she argued, to follow what Clark said although he translates foreign expressions and explains technical terms when he uses them. She objected to 'slow-moving and staid camera movements, fetishized close-ups, loving pans of great works of art, and dulcet tones of chamber music.' They conveyed, she said, 'an aura of serious contemplation.'

How, for heaven's sake, are you expected to examine great works of art - works of genius? Just a quick glance and move on laughing hysterically? As for music - there's a wide variety carefully chosen. Besides chamber music there's plainchant, symphonies, great choral works, opera, Monteverdi's Vespers and a great deal more. Nearly all of it was written within 20 years of the object shown on the screen. So the music complements what we're watching. Is two minutes too long to listen to a church organ on which Bach and Mozart played? If you've got the attention span of that lecturer it is.

Those who adopt such a childish attitude will get little out of this series. The programmes are more subtle than critics claim and require an intelligent engagement on the part of the audience.

As for those who still snipe at the series I issue a challenge - produce something that's better than Kenneth Clark's 'Civilisation.' Go on - do it.

In the meantime, I recommend the series is included on every school and college art course and elsewhere in the curriculum. The programmes talk up to their audience, not down, and will make them think. Each episode is divided into chapters 7 or 8 minutes long. Even if teachers don't want to show their students whole episodes they could show extracts and stimulate interest that way. If educators are too myopic to show "Civilisation" then students can now buy the series on Blu-ray, or DVD, and watch it at home. They'll gain a wider appreciation of art and civilisation and be one-up on the class. And who knows - the series might change your life...

I first saw this landmark series in high school over thirty years ago. It opened up a whole new world of art, archtecture and culture for me. I've watched it numerous times since, and have now finally purchased my own copy (all of which I viewed in two days!). I find Kenneth Clark charming, with an unusual combination of humility and confidence. The episodes are all filmed on site in Europe and are accompanied by music of the period. Very civilised entertainment!

I noticed a reviewer who dinged this series because Clark believed in a soul, supposedly. I can't imagine a more trivial and irrelevant comment.

I myself was disappointed because Greece and Rome were almost entirely omitted, and so the story of "Civilization" is the story, more or less, of Western European Christian civilization. But what well-educated man wants to be ignorant of that story, or those stories, much less of the amazing works of art, poetry, and architecture created by the Western European Christians?

All of these arts are, at their best, superb --- masterpieces. It is, in fact, difficult to imagine what Michelangelo was feeling while he sculpted his "David" --- the most magnificent statue on earth. One side of his soul must have been thinking, "This is Beauty" --- while the other side of his soul writhed in torment when thinking of the teaching of the Catholic Church in regards to "improper love" and (gasp) sodomy.

But that is just one point in the history of the triumph of Western civilization. These videos present all of it, or at least as much of it as can be done in 13 50-minute segments.

Interestingly enough, this whole series was shot on 35mm FILM. If that film has not been lost or destroyed, it should be used to create a BluRay version of this terrific series --- TV's first masterpiece.

As others have said here (except for one dissenter) this is a marvelous series. Those who were too young to see it when it appeared on PBS 40 years ago (was it really that long ago?), have the opportunity to see a truly educational program, unlike much of what is advertised as such these days (NOVA excluded!).

Other reviewers have covered well the content of this series, so I will add only a few comments:

- The title Civilization is unfortunate, especially with the passage of time. Better by far to have been called Western Civilization; or European Civilization, as the Series is very limited in covering a) the early part of Western Civilization, namely Greece and Rome, and b) covering the latter part of Western thought with the contributions from Europeanized "colonies" in North America and elsewhere. It no doubt prompted our lone dissenting reviewer to call it a "glorification of White Christianity".
- The quality of the video is pretty bad, for what is advertised as a 2010 release that has been "digitally restored and remastered" according to the packaging. This is a shame as it is the artwork that is the main star of this piece, not Lord Clark. It is said elsewhere that the BBC shot this in 35mm, and has recently released a Blu-ray version using this source. So the source media does exist to produce a high quality standard DVD release. But what they released in 2010 does not in any way come up to that standard - it would not be an exaggeration to say that it not much better than VHS in quality.
- To expand on this point, I have a high quality DVD player (standard DVD, not Blu-ray) and routinely play commercial movies that show very high quality and crisp resolution, MUCH higher in quality than this DVD does. So it's not the player that is at fault here.

I considered returning this DVD to Amazon due to its poor quality, but because the content is so good I will probably keep it anyway. I will deduct one star though.

In the meantime, if the BBC gets to read this PLEASE make a second re-release of this DVD (non-Blu-ray) based on the 35mm original print. Amazon, can you also convey this to the BBC? Thanks!

Civilisation es una de las mejores series sobre la cultura occidental que he visto. Los acertados comentarios de Lord Clark sobre cada uno de los periodos de Europa occidental, así como la belleza de las imágenes mostradas a lo largo de la serie hacen que tener esta serie valga la pena. Lamentablemente solo esta en inglés, pero aún así se puede aprovechar los subtítulos para los que no entendemos totalmente este idioma.

It is ridiculous to call this "civilisation". The whole thing is glorification of White Christianity, with no importance given to any other religion or non-white part of the world. Kenneth Clark is also a very boring presenter, and the script does not help.
Words like "barbarians" are used very freely. Mr Clark is a personification of a bigoted white christian.
There are much better choices available to give an overview of some of the periods covered by this set, e.g. "The Medici Godfathers of the Renaissance".