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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and engrossing, September 1, 2005
This review is from: Legacy - The Origins of Civilization [3 DVD Set] (DVD)
This is a wonderful series...beautifully photographed, and thoroughly engrossing. Michael Wood's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious. His narration is far from stale lecture - it is accessible, expressive and deeply moving at times.
What I enjoyed most about the series was the fact that there were no "dramatic re-enactments" of historical places, people and events. (...as NBC did in a mini-series made a few years after the release of "Legacy," complete with lots of simulated violence.) Rather than using computer generated models of cities, Wood takes us to the actual sites, passes through their crumbling walls, walks their time-worn streets and makes them come alive for us.
Many of those cities are inhabited to this day, and rather than use costumed actors to depict the ancient residents, we instead see them reflected in the faces of their living descendants. We see how something of the ancients endures to this day in the appearance and customs of common people, often in unexpected ways. We learn that human nature hasn't changed over the millenia as much as we might like to believe it has...a bit disheartening at first, but Wood shares his hope that we might learn from the mistakes of those who came before us.
I had just started to transfer my worn VHS tapes to DVD when I discovered they are now available in that format!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazing series all humans should watch, March 24, 2011
This review is from: Legacy - The Origins of Civilization [3 DVD Set] (DVD)
This series gives us a sampling of the customs, beliefs, world-views of all major civilizations of the world in 5 episodes, and then follows the late rise of the western civilization (which now dominates the world) and points how it takes from the pre-existing civilizations, and how it creates its own value system. I found this series absolutely amazing. If you are human, watch it!
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Naive, slightly dippy, fun and five stars!, April 14, 2006
This review is from: Legacy - The Origins of Civilization [3 DVD Set] (DVD)
This is a whirlwind tour of the history and origins of four distinct civilizations. Wood is a little too "aw shucksy" through the whole thing, if a Brit can be that, and very quick to laud the accomplishments of ancient civilizations and present them as a counterpoint to the excesses and short-sightedness of the West. At times his love-fest with the Eastern past is a little naive, overlooking the negative. It's a detailed yet shallow and unsophisticated reading of history, and the anti-Western slant is occasionally a little mean-spirited (but not necessarily incorrect). So why five stars?
It's still FUN. And a viewer can learn a lot. If you are a sophisticated viewer you'll immediately see through the series' limitations and still pick up some goodies. If the viewer is not so experienced in history it will make him or her re-examine their views of the ascendency of the West. In the end, as a counterpoint to the West's jingoism and ethnocentrism this series is a welcome and valuable contribution, despite or perhaps because of its rather hackneyed approach. Should be required viewing for all, if nothing else as a jumping-off point for discussion.
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