Customer Reviews

Dawn of Man - The Story of Human Evolution, Vol. 1-3 [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
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3 star:		(3)
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Just received my 3-tape set of "Dawn of Man, adventures in Human evolution", a BBC/TLC co-production. I watched the American televised version (which I taped) some time back, but this expanded British version (almost 300 minutes) is just too good to keep quiet about:

* solid science, Prof. Leslie C. Aiello is an expert explainer without once being condescending

* right up to date

* beautiful filmwork and production

* stunning sound score by English electronic composer Paul Lawler

Highly recommended!

If you have even a passing interest in evolution and/or paleo-anthropology, this is not to be missed.

Every school child and adult should watch this series! Because humans evolved relatively recently, we are blessed with a large amount of transitional fossils. The companion book helps a lot!

The content is good, when it is being presented. Far too much time is wasted on long fuzzy shots only vaguely illustrating the content, with dramatic music and no narration.

Pretty interesting individual vignettes, but leaves a lot unanswered. For example, the issue of when prehistoric humans discovered fire is never addressed. The location of where early humans first evolved is documented, but no discussion as to why they might have been spurred to evolve. There are also some inconsistencies - we are told that a certain behavior by homo erectus enabled them to acquire the nutrients they needed for expanded brain growth. Then later we are told that homo erectus did not, in fact, have a brain larger than the apes. The bits of re-enactment, which are interspersed throughout, also don't add a whole lot. Overall not bad, but could have been better.

This is a superb documentary. It's one of my absolute favorites and definetly the best I've seen on human evolution. It stays away from creating named characters and a storyline that takes away from the science- something that is done too often in more recent documentaries. Everyone SHOULD see this. It's both captivating and informative.

I know a person shoud not judge Alaska by all the biting bugs so I will try to be fair about this but this documentary was driving me crazy with all the pretentous wierd sound effects and naked actors howling at the moon. I mean really!! Who is this intended for? Tweleve-year-olds taking a break from MTV? The hard science is great and the contributuion to our understand of who we are is IMPORTANT. But next time out I wish they package a "kids" version and an "adult" version.