Product Details

• Actors: David Attenborough
• Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, Box set, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: June 1, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (138 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002UXRGLG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,869 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #53 in Movies & TV > DVD > Special Interests
• Learn more about "Life" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This enthralling BBC series examines "the lengths living beings go to to stay alive," in the words of Sir David Attenborough (Oprah Winfrey narrates the Discovery Channel version). Aided by breathtaking high-definition cinematography, the makers of Planet Earth explore the more colorful strategies the world's creatures employ to procreate, evade predators, and obtain nourishment. Cameras travel though the air, under the water, and right into the faces of insects, like the alien visage of the stalk-eyed fly. Except for "Challenges of Life" and "Hunters and Hunted," each episode covers a different category, such as mammals and birds. Among the more memorable images: three cheetahs move with the relentless rhythm of mobsters, a school of flying fish glides through the air with the grace of ballerinas, and a Jesus Christ lizard skips across the water, like, well, you know. The strangest sights range from a pebble toad bouncing away from a spider like a rubber ball and brown-tufted capuchin monkeys pounding palm nuts with stone tools like the apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Witty writing and skillful editing, which distills thousands of hours of footage, make the learning go down easy (at one point, Sir David references Jurassic Park, which featured his brother, Richard).

If the sound effects seem overamped, George Fenton's score is always on the money, adding humor and suspense at crucial moments (martial drums for the mud skippers, woozy brass for the Darwin's beetle). Nonetheless, delicate sensibilities may find some sequences disturbing, as when Komodo dragons feed on a water buffalo or when a leopard seal dines on a penguin (according to Attenborough, the Komodo siege caused the camera operators "emotional turmoil"). More often, the filmmakers capture the moment of impact before moving on. The set comes complete with 10 featurettes on the four-year production. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Life (Click for larger image)

Product Description

Four years in the making, filmed over 3000 days, across every continentand in every habitat, Life is the latest wildlife blockbuster from the BBC’s award-winning Natural History Unit, the producers of Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. Packed with excitement, revelation, entertainment, and stunning screen firsts, this breathtaking ten-part epic presents 130incredible stories from the frontiers of the natural world. Discover theglorious variety of life onEarth and the spectacular and extraordinary tactics animals and plants have developed to stay alive. This is evolution in action; individual creatures under extreme pressure to overcome challenges from adversaries and their environment, pushing the boundaries of behavior.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Attenborough Effect May 26, 2010

By Aubyn Stafford

Even as an American from Georgia, I so much prefer the BBC version over the American version for one reason: David Attenborough. Oprah is nice, but I prefer to leave this to the seasoned professional. Attenborough has been with us nature lovers for decades (I can remember him from The Living Planet series) and he's still going strong! One can tell that this man really knows his stuff and is indeed fascinated by the material, not just as a passing whim, but a life long passion. He is a true naturalist in an age in which that is a dying profession, and his enthusiasm for the wonder and complexity of life on earth is really made apparent with his narration. While others read words off a page, Attenborough lives the lives of the creatures themselves in the brief seconds during which they flash upon our screens.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a difference a voice makes October 17, 2010

By Born to Read

Amazon Verified Purchase

The "Life" photographer who spent twenty-one 11-hour days in a hide deep in a rain forest to capture the first mating of the bower bird ever recorded on film deserved something better than Oprah's soporific drone of narration. And so I was delighted to see that, while the Netflix version of "Life" offered only Oprah, the version narrated by the wonderful David Attenborough was available on Amazon.

Having watched, eyes narrowing, two and a half discs of the Oprahfied series, I began anew with this version, and it was like watching a completely different series. Though he appears on camera in only a few clips from older series, Sir David, a Cambridge-trained naturalist, exudes an enthusiasm for his topics that makes this series, so exquisitely caught on film, really sing.

Even if you already caught the Oprah version on TV, this version is well worth acquiring to watch. And it's a keeper - the intricacies of the animal world he points out are so magnificent, I know I shall watch this again and again.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing series December 23, 2009

By Panda

Like any nature show, scenes that are both breathtaking and traumatizing can be seen simultaneously. This show takes that and kicks it up several notches! With 4 years to research and plan, and filmed entirely in HD, the Life crew took amazing risks and were rewarded with footage that soars above all other nature shows. In some cases, the Life crew captured actions and moments that had never been seen or heard of before. The narration by David Attenborough is perfect. I'm not looking forward to the US version with a different narrator.. as with all things BBC, their version is far superior. The show does lean heavily on evolution at times so creationists will have to ignore those statements as the show overall is worth your time and money. (I skipped episode 6 on Insects, because, well I hate them, and the other shows were so incredible I didn't think I could handle that one. I'll watch it eventually!)

If you love nature shows, this one is a can't miss. If you don't love nature shows, watch this one anyway!