Customer Reviews

National Geographic: King Tut's Final Secrets

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This documentary has its moments, but overall is actually quite poor. The makers had great material to go on...an intriguing story, new evidence, forensics, murder...everything, but somewhere along the line they failed to make a good summary of the recent developements in Tutankhamun's life and times. Here are some areas where they went wrong:
1. The narrator- he was awful, a man that sounded similar to Mr. Moviephone, with no intonation or excitement for the subject. A native Egyptian with an accent, or even someone who seemed to understand the material and care about it would be much better than this man who seemed fresh out of the US, as if he were narrating a football game. He says Tutankhamun's wife's name (which is said Ankhasunamun- Ahn-ka-soo-na-moon) Akenasamen! He's not just prenouncing it wrong, he's adding and taking away letters that simply aren't in any of the versions of the name. It's not the narrator's fault, rather the script writers got that detail very wrong.
2. The reinactments of Tutankhamun and his life (with actors and sets) were horribly done, with the pharaoh wearing a crown that looked as if it were made of tinfoil, and a lot of mumbo-jumbo with him walking and gazing forlornly at his wife through a curtain of gauze. The only redeeming factor in the recreations were the chariot and war scenes that actually were quite good. Otherwise it was totally techno...oftentimes the camera had blue or purple tints to it, showing the king walking in weird labyrinths of purple cloth, not in an EGYPTIAN palace where he would have been.
3. The images they showed- many of them they played over and over such as the pictures of Lord Carnarvon, and the recreations of Tutankhamun, using the same clips about 10 times. It got tedious.
3. It was too filled with conspiracy theories and conclusions based soley on guesswork. I myself, I'm saying this with no ego, know very much about this period in history, and many "facts" they used were theories that haven't been proven and are somewhat unlikely. Some of them are down-right wrong: such as the fact that Tutankhamun was an avid hunter and warrior king. There is NO evidence that Tutankhamun went to battle or even hunted whatsoever, besides the paintings (not on the walls of his tomb as the movie says) but on a chest discovered in his tomb. This chest shows scenes of Tutankhamun in his chariot shooting arrows in war and at hunt, however this is a classic scene EVERY pharaoh is shown in, whether or not he actually did these great deeds. In fact, its very likely that Tutankhamun never hunted as generally CHILDREN did not partake in this activity, and there are no records of wars that the young king took place in. The false conclusions and lies infuriated me!
4. Most of the information they presented was the same stuff you could read in a short newspaper article(there were some great ones in the NY times) and the movie didn't go very in-depth. It seemed like the movie was simply stalling the whole time, with a few facts interspersed between the bizarre clips.
If you'd like to learn more about Tutankhamun I suggest reading "The Complete Tutankhamun" by Nicholas Reeves, and/or watching "Nefertiti Resurrected" which, while not mainly about Tutankhamun, has an abundance of information on the Amarna Period. Don't waste your time with this one...get it out of the library or borrow it from a friend but don't waste 20 bucks on it.

This documentary thoroughly explores all the circumstances regarding King Tut's Tomb. It presents an awesome look into the entire mystique of King Tut.

If you have been mesmerized by the details of this story, and wondered what was true or mere speculation or fantasy, National Graphic: King Tut's Final Secrets will satisfy your curiosities.

Well done, and worth the purchase price.

Publishers of several books and dvds have claimed that in their product is the absolute solution to the mystery of King Tut's early death. Most recent is James Patterson's bestseller that is listed as non-fiction but which contains no footnotes, no bibliography, no index--and no believable conclusions.

In the subject dvd, however, we have a much better view of the possibilities. Tut's mummy was removed from the tomb and three dimensional pictures were taken of the remains, head to toe. These photographs were examined by forensic pathologists who provide the viewer with their conclusions, backed by clear views of the mummy. It was established, for example, that Tut did not die of a blow to the back of the head, as Mr. Patterson and a few others surmised, but from something else, most likely from a chariot or war accident that broke his leg, most likely a compound fracture that became infected or developed gangrene.

Less compelling is the investigation into the curse of King Tut. This requires us to accept the fact that there was a "curse," that is, that an abnormal number of people connected with the opening of the tomb died soon after. They include Howard Carter's canary and Lord Carnarvon, who financed the Carter's expedition. Cultures of fungi from recently opened Egyptian tombs were found to be toxic, perhaps even lethal, and those who first ventured into Tut's tomb were exposed to these fungi. However, Carter lived for many years after 1922; Carnarvon died of an infected mosquito bite, weeks after the tomb opening. And the canary? It was miles away and never in the tomb. Others involved with the opening did die--but people do die. Thus, logical people will conclude that the Tut curse was a journalistic invention.

Despite all this, the program is fascinating and will be enjoyed by anyone with a touch of Tut-mania. In fact, it is indispensible if you are curious about what became of the boy pharoah.

I recently purchased the National Geographic King Tut's Final Secrets for the purposes of my year 11 Ancient History class. We are studying King Tut and as Egytpology is such a visual subject I decided to watch certain DVD's with them to get the full impact of the beauty and splendour of the subject. King Tut's Final Secrets was mesmerising and compelling. The class were silent and when the bell rang before the DVD had finished the class wanted to stay back at lunch time to find out how Tut had died. Of course, it was a bit of an anti-climax that he wasn't murdered!!! But how amazing was the specialist forensic experts and the amount of scientific detail included? Worth every dollar, I will be using it for years!!

Although the recreation towards the end of King Tut's face is amazing the whole documentary is one big Cat scan with some re-enactments or dramatizations,mainly a Forensic look at his body to see if he died from Illness,a betrayal or something else,the results come towards the end but the every annoying Zarwi guy and the whole theme on just exhuming him drags on,The look at the curse and of course the common sense behind that such as when someone comes in contact with something that has been locked up for so long there is bound to be fatal germs and bacteria laying dormant could explain the curse,An nonetheless worthy look at The boy King with some flaws.

This feature looks at many of the matters surrounding the finding of the tomb, the principal characters, and the "curse". It also purports to find the answer to how Tutenkhamon died (I am not completely convinced). It is detailed and well resourced but could have been made more interesting (it drags a little in parts). There is also a litle too much of Dr Zawi Hawass (Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt) with his too definite opinions. Overall it is a good effort and worth purchasing.

Although this Natgeo documentary has a lot of good info it is basically about a cat-scan done on Tut's mummy in an attempt to determine the cause of death and any other information that could be gleaned from the remains. It also looks at the possibility that the curse myth might have a basis in fact... that microorganisms sealed in the tomb contributed to deaths of some people involved in the tomb's discovery. And the documentary includes a reconstruction of Tut's face based upon the scanned skull. Interesting but not ground-breaking.

The unraveling of mysteries in National Geographic's KING TUT'S FINAL SECRETS can be divided into three parts:

1.) What did young King Tutankhamun really look like?
2.) Why did he die at such an early age?
3.) Is there any truth to King Tut's Curse?

Read no further if you don't want the answers given in this 95 minute show.

As to the fabled curse that began with the death of expedition financier Lord Carnarvon, we learn from this noble's grandson that Carnarvon didn't die within hours, days or even weeks after unsealing Tut's tomb, but some six months later. This shoots to heck any theory that he inhaled a toxic mold which in the Lord's weakened condition caused fatal pneumonia. The "curse" could've been further debunked by observing how selective and slow-acting it was (only a handful who were there in November 1922 expired within the first several years).

For Tut's face, two reconstruction experts were put to work. A French woman was told she was recreating the boy king's visage while an expert from Yale's Peabody Musuem wasn't informed of this. He came up with a homely man with a receding jaw and beak nose, while the lady's Tut was a pretty-boy ideal clearly based on his sarcophagus mask. Although these faces couldn't be any more unalike, Nat Geo's narrator claims the opposite! A laughable conclusion. (Aside: The Peabody Musuem, located on New Haven's Whitney Ave., has an astounding dinosaur collection!)

Finally, the many theories of Tutankhamun's demise were put to the light of a state-of-the-art CAT scanner. Was he murdered by a blow to the back of the head? Did an impacted wisdom tooth or other natural cause claim Tut or was a hunting/riding/chariot accident responsible? Was he killed in battle? A severe break of the left leg and missing patella SUGGEST mind you that death was the result of INFECTION. How the bone got broken can't be definitively known, whether accident or war wound.

The obvious is stated: life was precarious for all humans, kings or commoners, prior to the development of antibiotics.

This documentary is worth seeing, especially for those interested in ancient times. Some answers are given while other questions may never be resolved.

this tape is wonderful. very informative. enjoyed every minute of it. What a life he lived. Everything you want to know about King Tut.