Customer Reviews

The Real Eve: 5 Billion People From One Woman (Discovery Channel) [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I highly recommend this work!!! Two-thumbs up. It's possibly the best piece of work on the genealogy and evolution of humans I have seen in my lifetime. By researching and explaining the migration of modern humans from Africa throughout the rest of the world the research completely challenges our whole notion of RACE since it proves that we are all related somehow -- every single person on the planet can trace at least part of their mitochondrial DNA back to one small group of ancestors in Africa. At first it was hard to believe that someone who is phenotypically European or Asian could descend from someone who is African but the film does a solid job of using cinematography to recreate and explain the evolution of man over thousands of years. The use of indigenous people in the film from Eastern Africans to the Samang in Malaysia was brilliant. The director and producer make the events so real that you feel like you are there when it is actually happening. Danny Glover was a great choice to narrarate the film. One of the highlights of the film was when scientists randomly tested the DNA of 6 ethnically diverse Americans in Chicago and were able to link a Greek emigre and a Cree, Native American man by a common ancestor that existed 30,000 yrs ago using genetic markers. At no other time in the history of man have we had the scientific know-how to do this and DNA is 99.9% reliable evidence. I would love to see a sequel to the film that explores further the notion of this global expansion and evolution. How did changes in hair texture, culture, and languages come about over time as our ancestors migrated from one continent or country to another? I would also like them to interview people who've had their DNA tested -- like what it revealed and how it impacted their lives.

This video is remarkable! If your interested in how we evolved as a race and as beings, you'll love this. This documentary clearly will rewrite science books as we know it if taken seriously. I don't not recommend this DVD to people without an open mind, because you will simply refuse to believe. The tests and scientific evidence in this video are shocking and to know we all evolved from one common ancestor is something you'll find facisnating. Danny Glover is an excellent choice to narrate and the visuals are outstanding. A must for all who have questioned where we came from!

I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD. I had seen the program on the Discovery Channel and could not wait to own it. I believe that the makers of this film did a wonderful job of presenting the theory of mitochondrial Eve to the common man. As a future educator I plan on using this film as a teaching resource to illustrate to students one theory of the origin of modern man and their spread out of Africa to the rest of the world. Even if someone does not believe the theory presented in this film it holds its own as entertainment as well as a piece of informative media.

About a hundred thousand years ago, in a small part of sub-Saharan Africa, a small number of a an endangered specie "embarked" on a great journey of all times. A journey that dwarfs Columbian's and Magellan's in its length and duration.

Of course they had no idea where they'd go, but they had to go somewhere to survive. Being nomads, ancient tribes often moved less than a mile a year, just enough to survive and reproduce.

Within hundreds and thousands of generation Humans reached almost every major land body on the earth, and as they traveled north their skin got lighter in order to allow more of the scarce sunlight penetrate their skin and synthesize vitamin D. Of course that didn't' occurred in a Lamarckian way, rather the offspring living in the north with the gene coding for less melatonin in their skin synthesized more vitamin D, gained health and reproductive advantage and passed more of that gene to his offspring. Within 20,000 years or about one thousand generation, the skin lighted dramatically in the Northerners who were all descendents of black African.

Now would anyone after watching this movie hint that somehow Sociobiology and its adaptation theories are racist ? Far from it, we need sociobiology with its adaptation theories and new findings in genetics to show bigots once for all that we are all descended from the same lineage and any differences in color we might have are only skin deep.

The basic thesis is fascinating and very convincing; and not only because, in its broadest outline, actually very simple. With more data the story will surely become more complicated and perhaps less susceptible to documentary treatment. This is why I found 'The Real Eve' something of a disappointment.

Perhaps on the assumption that the audience would not be able to follow the science, we are treated to a very extended infomercial complete with gravel voiced commentary, kaleidoscopic special effects and rather corny dramatic reconstructions of fatal confrontations between rival stone-age humans. But this is an idea which doesn't need to be 'sold', just explained; and a lay audience doesn't need to be beguiled, merely informed.

Read the book: in 'The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa' (published in the UK as 'Out of Eden'), Stephen Oppenheimer tells the same basic story with much greater clarity much more convincingly.

This documentary is one of the best produced documentaries I've ever seen. Not only is it facinating and incredibly researched, but the music in it elevates the subject matter to profound levels.

This product was purchased as an adjunct to a NOVA series entitled, "Becoming Human." A comparison may be unfair, considering the excellence of NOVA productions, but the difference is very noticeable. Music is distracting, even offensive in places, and many times too loud. Special effects look like time padding. Danny Glover is a fine actor, but he doesn't suit this subject. Not authoritative enough and voice is not like his usual. Most interesting is the information on coastal migration, and this is additive to the NOVA series, and makes that part valuable to students of the migratory patterns of our ancestors.The Real Eve: 5 Billion People From One Woman (Discovery Channel) [VHS]

The Real Eve is a gem because the narrator (Danny Glover) discusses anthropological and biological concepts and discoveries in an easy to understand manner without resorting to condescending platitudes or preaching. After seeing it there is no other logical conclusion but to believe the only important race among Homo Sapiens is the human race itself.

i showed it to my students and it was a hit. all but one thought that it was great. that one said, "it's not true because the bible doesn't say any of that." well, forget him and focus on the genetics and the travels of the people. this is a great addition to "The Journey of Man", another wonderful genetic tracing of our species but looking at it through the male. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in our true beginnings.

This film conveys an important bit of information, however I had to watch the film quite a few times to fully grasp it. It traces the genetic path back 150,000 years ago to a single woman. However, it is not the HUMAN DNA that is traced, but rather the DNA of the mitochondia that live in our cells. The film never explains what mitochondia are, much less anything about the genetic markers. Frustrating. The film also suggests that humans left Africa through a SOUTHERN route rather than a northern one. However every time they mentioned this, they showed an unmarked map with an arrow pointed NORTHWARD. Frustrating. I would have given it 5 stars because I was so grateful to learn these things, but since I had to constantly repeat sections and consult an atlas and biology text, I give it 4 stars.