Rating: 
Summary: Vaguely interesting and nothing new for Romanov buffs
Review: Alas, yet another attempt at the Hitler Channel for making something not about Nazi Germany! And it failed. Although the score was nice, pretty much everything else was not. They did not interview historians--a lot of these people wrote those stupid "royal scandal" books, hardly anything to research about! I was disappointed with the repeat footage and the chapter on the tsar I know most about, Nicholas II, was entirely boring and full of no new information and the rehashed "he was an idiot, his wife was a hysterical lunatic" story was told; as for someone who has gone to Stanford University to research the last of the tsars, I was quite annoyed. The other thing that annoyed me was the change of names...Alexis and Alexei: make up your mind (I prefer Alexei)! The whole Cyrillic thing going on to make it more "Russian" was obnoxious. Needless to say, I taped over this with something much better, figure skating, and I think I'm glad I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Russia Land of the Tsars
Review: I don't own this videotape, but I've seen the show, either on
PBS or the History Channel. This is an excellent documentary.
If you like Russian history, this is for you!
Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: I don't own this videotape, but I've seen the show, either on
PBS or the History Channel. This is an excellent documentary.
If you like Russian history, this is for you!
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic introduction to Russian history
Review: I found this series to be captivating. It was well produced and entertaining and would be an excellent teaching tool for the high school classroom. I learned some new information on the evolution of Russia's history, and I am inspired to learn more. I am on Amazon today to buy a book on Catherine the Great. I think some of the reviewers below must have seen another series. Their discriptions are so strange and inaccurate.
Rating: 
Summary: Great script -- terrible film
Review: I loved the history presented in this movie. However, I became very tired of the repeated scenes (like the blood flowing on the stone floor or the horse running on the beach of the rivers) over and over again. It became laughable at times. The creators decided to save money by using the same footage repeatedly -- even if hundreds of years had passed. Heck, couldn't they have at least presented a different angle?
If you going to make a movie -- do it right.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Primer to Start With
Review: I was honestly suprised to see how many reviewers gave negative comments regarding Russia - Land of the Tsars DVD. There are certainly repetitive clips, but I found that overall, the entire DVD was a good introduction for a first time student or someone who wanted a visual history of the Russian Tsars.
I rented the DVD from my library, and watched both volumes on the weekend. There are two DVDs in all, volume one covering the entire history of the Tsars, and volume two featuring stories on Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Rasputin (from Tsar Nicholas II's reign).
The first volume, although it covers such an immense range of material, is done well. Of course, the notable Tsars like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great are described in better detail. However, I agree that there are rehashed clips, and some of the renactments are merely clips of horsemen banging swords around (with the camera showing closeups of these swords).
Volume two, although about the Russian Tsars, seems dissimilar to volume one in some respects. While Vol. I was done by the History Channel, Vol. II contains episodes from A&E's biography. Thus, there are a few conflicts between the stories on Vol. I and II. For example, Vol. I emphasized Peter the Great's half sister, Sophia, more in the history of his youth. But in Vol. II, you don't get a sense that Sophia was important at all. And although Ivan the Terrible is one of the three figures on Vol. II, there are missing elements to his story that are captured with more depth in Vol. I.
The only thing that really frustrated me was how Vol. II used the
same clips from previous stories. During the Peter the Great's
story, they kept showing the painting of Ivan the Terrible's murder of his son. How does this relate? It obviously doesn't,
and this error diminishes Vol. II's narration and accuracy.
So although I was displeased with some of the things in Vol. II,
I thought Vol. I was done well enough that I could recommend this DVD to individuals without any background in Russian history who were interested learning about the Tsars. Of course, it does more to read about the long, expansive history, but Vol. I can perform a service by getting people introduced and interested in some of the leading figures in Russian history before they get started on a book.
Rating:
Summary: Agreed - good Russian History Introduction
Review: I was looking for an introduction to Russian history to supplement a book that I had read. I found it in this two-volume DVD set. The first was exactly that, a tracing of Russian history through the fall of the tsars. It didn't go that deep, but it was just what I was looking for. The second DVD, which had several episodes of PBS "Biography", was a pleasant surprise to me - I hadn't expected it. It gave additional insights into Russia's most prominent characters of history, Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, as well as Rasputin.
My dayghter, a college history major, was taking an upper-level course entitled "The Romanov Years". She felt that this DVD set really helped crystallize the basic things for her so that she could more easily understand the more advanced topics in the course.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea, average (but still pretty good) result
Review: I watched the entire series on TV this week and was really quite impressed. Besides loving history in general I have an odd niche interest in the Tsars of Russia (yeah for spelling it not czar!). I especially like the earlier stuff, entirely bored by the time of Nicholas II and the whole end thing. Just a note, Alexander II is actually my favorite because of a book called The Crown and the Crucible by Michael Phillips & Judith Pella--a favorite hold-over from teen years.Like I said in the title, I loved the idea behind this series. I realize the trend these days to do "bottom-up" history aka social history of the common man. I like that okay but I am very interested also in the leaders, movers and shakers. Some of the tsars are such larger than life characters who had a lot to do with the direction that the huge Russian empire took in their respective reigns. You can't do history then without mentioning them. Thank you History Channel! My only problems include some cut corners in beginning title graphics, re-enactment footage run a *few* too many times (at least when watching the whole thing in a row) and a tad too much of a sensationalistic feel to some of the narration. I do not usually buy dvds of TV series so I can't really say whether this is a good buy or not. I can say though that the producers/filmmakers of this series did a real good job and kept me hooked for 4 hours without too much trouble at all.
Rating:
Summary: good documentary
Review: interesting and keeps your attention. i know it was made to be for tv so it had to be kept short but it would have been great if the history channel wouldve gone into greater detail (apending more time) on the lives of the czar/rinas that are mentioned. Some of the czar/rinas talked about include: Issac the terribble, Peter the Great, Catherine the great, Alexander II (i think although it couldve been the III but I am almost sure it was the II), and Nicholas II. overall: good, interesting, reviewing value is good.
Rating:
Summary: Please oh please turn down the music!
Review: That, sadly, is what stood out in my mind the most as far as quality goes. The "background" music plays very loudly, and the narrator, at times, speaks rather softly in comparison. There are no subtitles to help you along, so I often had to put up with blaring (and oddly techno) music in order to hear the narration. The makers obviously love their historical reenactments, which is all well and good, most of the time. However, they do tend to reuse items repeatedly, and not always in the right places. A painting of Ivan the Terrible holding his son's body is also used to represent Peter the Great torturing his victims. A painting of a mother holding a baby is said to show the births of both Ivan the Terrible, and Peter the Great's first son. And so on, in several more instances. Well, which is it? While the documentaries had nothing new to say to me (because I've done extensive reading on the Romanov dynasty), it is a good introduction to Russian history. The A&E Biographies of Ivan, Peter, and Rasputin were also well done. Let's say, 3.5 stars.
|
