Product Details

• Directors: Cromwell Productions
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: May 30, 2006
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000FC2HKO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,593 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

In the year 79 AD, the ancient seaside city of Pompeii was buried beneath a mountain of volcanic ash and pumice when nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted furiously. More than two thousand of Pompeii’s citizens lost their lives. For almost 1,700 years, until its rediscovery in 1748, Pompeii lay hidden - a city and its people suspended in time. Now we can see the streets and buildings almost as they were on the day Pompeii died - an incredible snapshot of Roman civilization in its heyday. This program contains superb graphics and computer animation, detailed reconstructions, location footage of Pompeii today, and Insightful interpretation and analysis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Siouxsie Sioux Sang, February 8, 2007

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pompeii - the Doomed City (Lost Treasures of the Ancient World) (DVD)

Like many people around the globe, I just loved the film "Titanic." It gave me an opportunity to find out what happened without being there. I could learn the facts and live to speak about it. This work answers, "Why didn't the townspeople see the eruption coming?" and "Why didn't' they try to flee?" The documentary said that many bodies were found above the ash which suggests that they died after the ash and burning rocks already fell. The work speculates on how that happened. Unlike Titanic on which the majority of passengers died, this documentary said only 1/4 of Pompeii residents passed away.

This documentary series prides itself on its 3-D graphics. Usually I don't care about that stuff. However, here it was incredibly helpful. The demonstration of a volcanic explosion was like the chubby, bearded man who showed the elder Ruth DeWitt-Bucater a display on how the Titanic sank. You can't flee if burning rocks fall everywhere and ash blocked out the sun. This work said author Pliny the Elder died trying to save Pompeii residents; this reminds me of the valiant firefighters and other selfless people who died during 9-11.

In the middle of the work, the narrator describes life in Ancient Rome. Yawn! I could watch other documentaries for that. I was more interested in discussions specifically related to the eruption and its aftermath. Later they speak of an Italian man who seems to be to Pompeii what Howard Carter was to Egyptology; that was informative. Like Titanic, modern tourists are "loving Pompeii to death," the visits are having a ruinous effect on the ruins. The documentary may cause some to weep because it can get you to thinking about Hurricane Katrina or the Asian tsunami and its victims. It suggests modern Naples could come to the same fate.

One interviewee is a British woman with bad teeth that may cause Americans to chuckle or gasp rather than listen. She belonged in the "Book of British Smiles" shown on "The Simpsons."