Product Details

• Actors: Just the Facts
• Directors: n, a
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: GOLDHIL HOME MEDIA
• DVD Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1585651788
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #394,711 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The title says it all: promising "just the facts," this video delivers. Beginning with the Vikings and ending with the space shuttle, explorers who came to America, crossed it, mapped it, and blasted off from it are all covered in a factual cascade. This sounds great, but as Columbus, Balboa, de Soto, Champlain, and seemingly dozens of others all pass by in what starts to feel like fast motion, the video's comprehensiveness is scuttled by its own velocity. Despite the cursory coverage afforded to many featured explorers, the video's broad focus does work well in one regard, as when it provides information about some intrepid souls who seldom get proper attention, such as Charles Wilkes, who led an expedition that visited Antarctica, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest. The production features some very good visuals, including vintage prints and maps and even some well-produced reenactments, but the speedy pace and very broad focus means that the viewer is left mostly curious and wanting more. --Robert J. McNamara

Product Description

Our early explorers paved the way for the development of America. They had the courage, the drive, the passion, to be the first and their discoveries proved to the world that America was a land of extraordinary resources and beauty.
This program is about those American explorers and pioneers who were the pathfinders; those who first explored the valleys, rivers and mountains of America, and those who were the first to make it their home. Men like Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, Henry Hudson, James Cook, Daniel Boone, Robert Gray, Lewis and Clark, Charles Wilkes, John Fremont and many more.
While outlining the exploration of our continent, this video also captures the great beauty and abundant natural resources of our great land. You ll see expansive landscapes and breathtaking vistas, from the eastern landscapes and breathtaking vistas, from the eastern seaboard, where the pilgrims first set foot, to the dense forests of Shenandoah... from the great plains of the mid-west, to the soaring Rocky Mountains, and from the stark beauty of the southwestern desert to the magnificence of California coastline.
Our great explorers remain heroes and their stories are both thrilling and fascinating. The Just The Facts Learning Series brings these adventures to you in a fast-paced style that makes learning fun!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars QUICK SUMMARY OF EXPLORERS, June 4, 2006

By 

Denis Benchimol Minev "Amazonia" (Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Just the Facts: America's Explorers and Pioneers (DVD)

This DVD attempt to cram into about an hour the entire history of North American exploration. Given its aim, I believe it does quite a decent job of doing so. It summarized five hundred years of history and many dozen expeditions and explorers into brief tidbits of information. I don't think this is a good educational tool, since it would likely be somewhat uninteresting -- it does not have very interesting stories, just a stream of information. Rather, this is a good starting point to someone wishing to research North American exploration and would like an intro to the main events and people in its history. Not really something to excite people about history, people seeing this should already be excited.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Explorer Video Review, November 18, 2003

By 

Kim Kozbial-Hess (Sylvania,, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just the Facts: America's Explorers and Pioneers (DVD)

I showed this to a group of fifth graders. The narrator talked extremely fast and it was difficult for the students to grasp the concepts.