Customer Reviews

The Da Vinci Code: The Total Story - Special Edition (The History Channel)

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

 

 

Introduction: The History Channel has been kind enough to combine six programs into one 2-disc set containing:

-Beyond the Da Vinci Code
-The Templar Code
-Da Vinci Bloodlines
-Opus Dei Secrets Revealed
-Mary Magdalene: The Hidden Apostle
-The Holy Grail

Critique: If you're fascinated by the history, myth and legend surrounding the enigmatic and long maligned Mary Magdalene, her relationship with Jesus and all the related subject matter attached to her mythos (i.e. the Holy Grail, sacred bloodlines and secret societies), prepare yourself for hours of viewing pleasure. The production values are superior and the presention enjoyable. Most of the material is basic faire, but it is a good comprehensive study for the novice explorer.

The program `The Holy Grail' was in my estimation the most informative covering a massive amount of material on King Authur and the Knights of the Round Table. The program dealing with the possibility of a sacred bloodline was also quite entertaining and a nice change of pace, being presented as an Indiana Jones adventure. Josh Bernstein (a.k.a. Indiana Jones) hosted this travelogue-like quest crisscrossing Europe and the Holy Land in search of evidence to prove the existence of Middle Eastern DNA in the unearthed remains of European royalty.

The feature on Mary Magdalene (my primary interest) is a straight forward, conservative approach to the subject without all the highly speculative material one has come to expect. It does go as far as debunking the age old belief that Mary was a prostitute and places her in the esteemed position of leader, evangelist, mystic and prophet. There is also a brief mention of the belief that Mary and Jesus may have had a sexual relationship but that possibility is immediately debunked and dismissed.

As for negatives, because the various subjects matters all overlap the presentations tend to move in a cyclic manner, moving in a non linear manner constanting regressing and repeating information in an attempt to tie all the various storylines together. Unfortuanately they also replay the same film footage when doing so. After a while this storytelling method becomes too repetitious and redundant to the viewer.

My Rating: Good resource material and a lot of it too! For sheer volume alone, -5 Stars-.

There are lots of repeatations in this DVD. Looks like when the DVD was made the hostiry channel simply put all the episodes together. They should have cut away the overlap part which makes the DVD slightly boring.