Product Details

• Actors: Terry Jones
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Koch Vision
• DVD Release Date: January 8, 2008
• Run Time: 205 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000WVPXAE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,616 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Terry Jones' Barbarians" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

So you think you know everything about the Romans?
Monty Python’s Terry Jones invites you on an entertaining expedition through Roman history from an entirely different perspective – that of the Barbarians. Far from the uncivilized savages they have been believed to be, many of these "non-Romans" were not barbaric at all. They were, in fact, highly organized and intelligent societies that had no intentions of overthrowing Rome or its Empire. A rare blend of scholarly research and archaeological evidence along with Jones’ familiar brand of irreverent humor gives this fascinating series a unique insight into the Barbarians, the Romans and the creation of the modern world.

Includes the episodes:
(Disc One) The Primitive Celts – The Brainy Barbarians
(Disc Two) The Savage Goths – The End of the World

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Barbarians ... Terry Jones ... Koch Vision (2008)", March 4, 2008

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Terry Jones' Barbarians (DVD)

Koch Vision and BBC presents "TERRY JONES' BARBARIANS" (2007) (205 mins/Color) (Dolby Digital) ---Terry Jones' Barbarians is a 4-part TV documentary series first broadcast on BBC 2 in 2006 --- It was presented and written by ex-Python Terry Jones, challenging the received Roman and Roman Catholic notion of the barbarian --- It could be compared to his earlier series Terry Jones' Medieval Lives in that it questions aspects of history that everyone takes for granted --- So you think you know everything about the Romans? They gave us sophisticated road systems, chariots and the modern-day calendar --- And of course they had to contend with barbarian hordes who continually threatened the peace, safety and prosperity of their Empire. Didn't they?

Terence Graham Parry Jones (born 1 February 1942) is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host --- He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team --- As a member of the Monty Python troupe, Jones is remembered for his roles as middle-aged women and the bowler-hatted "man in the street" --- He typically wrote sketches in partnership with Palin.

EPISODES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
THE PRIMITIVE CELTS (First broadcast 26th May 2006)
1. Celtic Barbarians
2. Caesar's Gallic Wars

THE SAVAGE GOTHS (First broadcast 2nd June 2006)
1. Arminius
2. Dacian Wars
3. Alaric I's sack of Rome

THE BRAINY BARBARIANS (First broadcast 9th June 2006)
Jones argues that the ancient Greeks and Persians were in reality far from the Roman view of them as effeminate and addicted to luxury. The Greeks valued science and mathematics, while the Persians had initially allowed multiculturalism among the different ethnic groups of its empire (until years of war with Rome).
1. Antikythera Mechanism
2. Archimedes and Syracuse
3. Parthians
4. Sassanids

THE END OF THE WORLD (First broadcast 16th June 2006)
Around 400 AD, two Barbarian babies were born. One would grow up to become the most feared of all - Attila the Hun. The other, Geiseric, led the Vandals whom history has cast as destroyers. Jones finds out that Roman civilization wasn't destroyed by the invasion of these tribes, but by the loss of the North African tax base. He sees the common view of Rome and "Barbarians" as a result of the Roman Catholic Church popularizing the Roman version of the truth.
1. Sack of Rome (455)
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Great job by Koch Vision --- looking forward to more high quality titles from the BBC Collection film market --- order your copy now from Amazon or Koch Vision where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector.

Total Time: 205 mins on DVD ~ Koch Vision KOCV-6469 ~ (1/08/2008)

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as Good as the Book..., April 15, 2008

By 

F. Scalfano (Trinity, AL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Terry Jones' Barbarians (DVD)

Of course, a television program, which is what this was before it was made into a DVD, is never going to have the kind of detail and cogency of a book. The book which was made for the series (or is it the other way round?) contains a lot more information, and documentation of the propositions made by the author regarding the short-comings of Roman civilization. My review of the DVD is colored by the fact that I read the book before seeing the DVD, but this does not really invalidate my criticisms since reading the book has given me (at least I hope) a more complete picture of what Mr. Jones was trying to say in the video.

Much of what the author says regarding the European barbarians (Goths, Vandals, and Celts) is not new, and has been known for much of the last two centuries. The kind of pro-Roman chauvinism to which Mr. Jones is so opposed largely went out with Edward Gibbon in the 18th century. It may be that they were still teaching Gibbon when he was going to school. After all, he is kind of old. I remember when I was in college having a professor who actually believed that the Roman fleet used galley slaves, as was portrayed in Ben Hur. I tried to explain to him that even Mommsen, back in the 19th century, knew that was not the case, but he just accused me of being credulous. I digress.

Still, there is a lot of very interesting new archaeological information presented in the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history of the period, with the caveat that Mr. Jones really has it in for the Romans, and he tends to stack the deck against them. I suspect he is descended from Boudicca, or at the very least was bullied by a classicist in school. The idea that the Roman contribution to western (and world) civilization is grossly overrated seems to be an obsession. In particular, I think the idea that the Romans (and that all Romans in all periods had the same attitudes) thought of the Greeks as barbarians is particularly extreme. The emperor Hadrian is a specific contrary example, and he is by no means alone. Furthermore, while some Romans doubtless thought of Parthians as at least depraved eastern foreigners, I doubt they were considered barbarians in the same sense as the Germanic tribes or even the Celts. The concept that a feudal political organization (Parthians/Persians) is somehow superior to a centralized state with a national bureaucracy (Rome) betrays Mr. Jones' medievalist roots.

To summarize: Buy it. Enjoy, but try to overlook some of the more strident anti-Roman diatribe.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Solid and Fun History Lesson, June 20, 2008

By 

David D. Lawson "A Legend in his own mind" (The Peoples Republic of California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Terry Jones' Barbarians (DVD)

Mr. Jones is to be congratuated for a fun, interesting & breezy history lesson about some of the myths about the Folks who finally knocked off the Roman Empire. Altogether its a good introduction about an interesting period of History.