Product Details

• Actors: John Romer
• Directors: Peter Spry-Leverton
• Writers: John Romer
• Producers: Peter Spry-Leverton, Nicholas Barton
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Live / Artisan
• VHS Release Date: June 27, 2000
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0784015139
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,391 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Antiquities scholar John Romer tells viewers from the start that the Seven Wonders of the ancient world are not about "stones and bones, but about archaeological wonder." It is this gentle enthusiasm of writer/narrator Romer that keeps this tape from the folks at The Learning Channel from stalling in the intellectual quagmire of seated professors speaking to cameras. In fact, there is nary a talking head in the entire 86 minutes. Romer visits the remnants or sites of the four wonders located near the shores of the Mediterranean: the Colossus of Rhodes, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Pharos of Alexandria, and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Computer animation re-creates them as described in ancients texts, while Romer travels the Mediterranean by boat and on foot, sharing not only locations, but related structures (others still standing near Alexandria) and plenty of history, mythology, and the stories of the destruction of each. Volume 2 similarly examines the remaining three wonders of the world. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars David Lawson, August 22, 2003

By 

D. D Lawson (Pasadena, Calif. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Seven Wonders of the World - Vol. 2 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Mr. Romer really knows his stuff and presents it with the heart of a poet. You can not help but be seduced by his love of history coupled with good humor. The man takes you places that most people can only dream of and makes you feel that you are there yourself.

2 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not focused on topic, November 29, 2003

By 

Raphael Collin "Rafe" (Jersey City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Seven Wonders of the World - Vol. 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

John Romer has replaced the traditional "talking heads" in historical documentaries with a single head, his own, and he is always talking. Unfortunately, half of what he says has nothing to do with the Seven Wonders. Romer incessantly repeats a few pet phrases: "the ancestor of all ...", "here we find the origins of the modern world ..." Nothing can simply be of its own time; everything must be relevant to our modern lives. The video makes a visually attractive and intellectually stimulating introduction to the multi-cultural world of the Hellenistic Greeks, but it can go for ten minutes without a mention of its nominal subject: the Seven Wonders. Without a real focus, the film comes to seem more a meandering home video of Romer's summer vacation traveling about the Mediterranean.