Product Details

• Directors: Rick Ray
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: January 6, 1998
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 187958705X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,863 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

National Geographic Society, March 6, 2003

"..without reservation, Ray's work exceeds the industry's highest standards for cinematography and editing, script writing, sound recording or editing....."

"Rick's films beat the competition thanks to beautiful images and wonderful scripts, they reveal insights into the human condition...."

Product Description

This is definitive work about the many issues facing the Middle East. It is the visual equivalent of Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut To Jerusalem". Rick Ray, avid traveler and adventurer, explores the region without the express permissions of the governments in question to see it "as it is". His roving camera and the observations contained within this piece give us an informed and mature glimpse into the region from a perspective which the Western and Arab media sources rarely give us.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FILM FOR OUR TIMES, October 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost Worlds of the Middle East: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In these troubling times, it is so refreshing to find a tape which puts the Middle East into perspective in a way which is neither pedantic nor proselytizing. It seems that every "expert" we hear who speaks about this region has a strong agenda, but this film tells it like it is, and in courageous terms. Of paramount importance is the way the film characterizes most Arabs and Muslims as a people almost un paralleled in their generosity and personal kindness, while also pointing the finger at their xenophobic governments, who repress criticism and stifle democracy. It is the governments, police, and small cells within these countries, who give us the impression of the Middle East as a region of radicalism and intolerance. The depiction of a lawless Lebanon of the 1970's and 80's, of a quietly repressive Syria in 2000, and of a West-leaning and relatively liberal Jordan is exact, and accurate. And the absolute contrast of Israel on the borders of these regions - a democracy utterly filled with Western style freedoms, and Western style weapons - captures the unease of the region in poetic and concrete terms. The depiction of the US a distant Roman Empire, exporting a culture and world view which causes the secular and fundamentalist factions in these countries to split and divide is well worth contemplating. A fascinating work. Recommended.