Crusades

Rating:
Summary: DVD Quality ?
Review: For those who wish to buy this dvd-box ,
don't expect superior picture and sound quality because it looks like they have been copied from the VHS-tapes.
You can clearly see the overal vagueness and in the darker scenes where dvd's usually shine brighter than tapes ,you've got no improvement at all.
Also , u have to turn the sound up quite a bit to understand anything that is said and even then it's not great.
The only plus points to buying the dvd are the navigation menu ,less space than the tapes and no tape wear ,no rewinds.

Rating:
Summary: unbeatable
Review: history and wit come together wonderfully in this incredible book on the christian/moslem holy war - you can't beat this book.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: History is a major interest of mine; therefore I find historical documentaries to be very entertaining. I collect them and even enjoy watching some of them more than once. Unfortunately though, I was very disappointed at this particular one.

The first thing that bothered me was the visual presentation. For some reason the producers thought that it would be more entertaining to show images of current day Muslims and their homes and activities while telling the story of their ancestors. And even though this might've been a cool idea have it been presented for a few minutes once or twice, but to be used as the rule turned out to be very distracting. When I watch 'Rome: Power and Glory' I don't expect them to show me modern Europeans while telling me stories about Romans! I prefer to watch true Roman antiquities and arts! After all, this is a historical documentary, isn't it?

The second thing that truly annoyed me was the narrator, Jones. You'll waste considerable time watching him walk around the desert wearing medieval warriors' armor, but that's not even the worst! You'll get bored to the skull watching him bargain with a mule-owner to buy his mule, or him waiting for a poor lady to make him domestic bread, or him sitting among the audience of an Arabian storyteller telling a story of a legendary war hero! In addition, I found his supposedly humorous presentation of the events to be an interest-killer!

I found nothing in this work to make me cut the producers any slack! The music was [not produced well], the added features were uninformative and useless, and they could've saved us shelf-space have they recorded the documentary on a one double-sided DVD rather than two DVDs!

I guess my tone reveals my bitterness over the purchase of this DVD, which, I admit, is true for the reasons above. I do understand though that the things I complained about could be found to be entertaining by others thus please read my review objectively.

Rating:
Summary: Propaganda make no mistake about it
Review: I purchased a copy of this DVD because I am a history buff. I don't think I have ever run into such intense anti-Christian propaganda. If I hadn't read about the history of Europe and the Middle East between 400 A.D and 800 A.D. I might not have been able to recognize this production for the propaganda it is. Readers should refer to Paul Fregosi's book Jihad for a description of the bloody path carved by Mohammed's Beduoins as they swept out of their desert into civilized lands grabbing slaves and booty. The Crusades were a reaction to the brutal, savage and bloody conquest of the Middle East and parts of Europe by Mohammed's armies and their successors. The participation of Karen Armstrong should tip you off. Her name appears in the front of the book that is a companion to the DVD. Karen must be collecting money from the Saudi's as she is a one women apologist for all the bloody episodes out of the history of Islam. No one should be surprised that warfare as practiced in the Middle Ages was brutal and Christian armies sometimes committed what we in the 21st Centuries would rightly call atrocities. Performed by a Christian army, these atrocities can rightly be called contrary to the teaching of Christ. Atrocities cannot be called contrary to the example of Mohammed himself, who was an active general and warlord and who personally enslaved and tortured and killed many enemy captives.

This is a example of "Dhimmitude," look for the book by that name by Bat Ye'or. Dhimmitude means the acceptance of second-class status by non-Muslims and an attitude of appeasement against Muslim violence. Westerners, particularly, Christians are being taught to be ashamed of their history and this DVD is part of it. For centuries the term "crusader" had positive connotation. Watch carefully as the Muslim apologist work to remove this word from the list of acceptable positive terms and make it a perjorative.The end result is that we are supposed to accept the idea that the conquest of millions of Christians by Muslims lead by Mohammed was right and proper, but that the counter attack by Christian armies was a "war-crime." If you grew up thinking that Richard the Lion-Hearted is a hero, this DVD wants to teach you that he was a war-criminal and Saladin was a civilized hero. Saladin had his virtues but Richard the Lion-Hearted was responding to factual reports of the abuse of Christians in the Holy Land, an area which had been entirely Christian for 700 years before Mohammed lead his armies out of the desert.

Rating:
Summary: Could learn very little about crusades
Review: If you want to learn something about the crusades you better look elsewhere.Terry Jones is slightly amuzing, however that is it. You don't have details . How many soldiers. How was the soldiers convinced to go in such a maddening enterprise. There is very litle about the Frank empire. Very disapointing. There are errors too 1) the swords of the so called "turks" were not curved and 2) the so called turks were not turks

Rating:
Summary: This is a wonderful book.
Review: It is informative, comprehensive, and a delight to read. It also has beautiful illustrations and helpful maps. And it has Terry Jones' ironic humor mixed in.

Rating:
Summary: Skewering & Roasting the Byzantine Empire & Knight Errantry
Review: Mark Twain would have loved this documentary. Jones who has decidedly Welsh roots and probably had ancestors involved in the crusades gives the crusades a new life in this great roasting. Are you a person with a wicked fun sense of humor, have gothic and medievel tastes?

When you hear certain family members or people you respect as your friends boast about America going on a "new crusade" over in the middle east do you cringe in embarassment over their ignorance and wish you had something up your sleeve to show memebers of you family or friends who purport themselves to be somewhat intelligent? (Personally I always wonder how they'd react to someone saying let's have a "new inquisition" because there are to many different Christian religions or a "new witch hunt" because of the mother goddess religion and midwife revival.) Then this vid's for you.

In a nutshell, Jones points out how when people were first recruited to fight the crusades, it was the first major propaganda trip Europe had ever seen. The vast ignorance of most of those who joined the fight is pointed out, as is the the vast difference in educational differences between the Byzantines, Western Europeans, and Middle-Easterners. For instance, by the time the crusaders reached Jerusalem for the first time the emperor and pope didn't really want the crusaders in the middle east anymore.

Also, the first people the crusaders attacked were: in Germany, the Jews, and when the crusader reached the middle east a Christian Church. One of my favorite spots is how in their first real battle against the Muslims, all the Muslims rode mares and the Europeans stallions and the battle went rather embarassingly . . . .

It is startling for the educated mind, to see how a culture once as educated and intellectual as the middle east once was has now slipped into such horrible ignorance and intolerance. To think if it wasn't for the middle-eastern scholars we wouldn't have what we now do of Greek philosophy brought back by the crusaders' ransacking.

There are is another entertaining device Jones uses as well: paintings that come to life in a creepy, shivery way.

I don't have a problem with the over all length, because I watched it when it was first marketed on VHS, and it was segmented into a few tapes, so I knew it was meant to be viewed either separatley or together. That's what's great about DVD: it's so flexible. You can skip to whatever section you want, or watch the whole thing through without getting up and putting a tape in.

Crusades is a fresh take on the crusades, that merits watching for all the right reasons. If you like Daria or Python you'll like this. I recommend, in addition to this if you like medievel historical vids with a twist, to check out Nuns: Behind the Veil. That video chronicles female spirituality struggles in Ireland and greater Europe. (I reviewed that as well, so you can click on my reviews and it will pop up.)

Crusades is watched by seniors in at my local high school around here, though they must've stopped it before the end, because there is one part some parents might want to know about: at the very end, when they show how the crusades ended they talk about how the Byzantine empire was ruled by a courtesan and they show her in the throne room and she's ahh, topless. Painted all blue like Mystique, from the X-men, but bare-breasted.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, perhaps; history, no.
Review: Negative reviews rarely get much support on Amazon but, at the risk of seeing "0 of [X] people found the following review helpful," be warned that this series contained much misinformation. The editorial review, which informs us that "to think it all had to do with Christian faith is absurd," is a tip-off. Yes, actually, it did have a great deal to do with the Christian faith and the European reaction to Muslim expansion. History is rarely well-served by the visual media, and especially not with such a complex subject. TV wants a good guy and a bad guy -- and so here the Muslims are the good guys and the Christians the bad; thirty years ago it might have been written the other way around and would have been just as misleading and anachronistic.

To understand the medieval mindset requires effort -- reading history (Crusade histories tend to be multi-volume and slow going for the casual reader) and thinking about it. To write off the Crusades as the atrocities of greedy, foolish white men requires only popping in a DVD and watching a comedian read a BBC script.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Other reviewers have stated that if you are serious about learning all you can regarding the crusades, you should skip this book.

I disagree.

I have quite a bit of knowledge on the subject, and found this book quite enjoyable. Instead of the usual dry, slightly boring books that try to remain as objective as possible, Jones and Ereira come out swinging.
They make no pretense about being *the* authoritative source for knowledge on the subject, saying just the opposite, and thereby allowing me to relax and enjoy the reading. They also apply a liberal amount of dry wit and biting sarcasm to point out the fanatical lunacy that the crusades inspired.

I was actually suprised by the amount of factual evidence and written documentation from that time that Jones and Ereira dug up and used. They indeed did their homework before setting things down on paper. Nice chronology and maps accompany traditional artwork depicting various scenes from the crusades.

I recommend picking this one up if you are just casually looking for information on the crusades, or if you've done exhausting research on the subject (you could use the break!)
And if you can, pick up the video series. The series is quite informative and very entertaining!

Rating:
Summary: Propaganda? Make no mistake about it?
Review: Readers and viewers of this work should realize that history contains ugly realities to anyone's perspectives. Certainly, the Moorish hordes relegated Christians and Jews to Dimi status (mostly as a sort of tax strategy), looted, enslaved, and killed masses just like the crusaders, but THIS ISN'T A BOOK ABOUT THE ARABS!!!

This same sort of 'prejuidcial history' is leveled against Noam Chomsky for his history of the Arab Israeli conflict and his focus on Israel and the U.S. As with critics of Chomsky, you should note that the author of the previous review makes no mention of the facts presented in the book. Why? Because he cannot refute them. Instead he accuses the authors of apologetic propaganda; exactly the exercise in which he is involved.