Nature – Horses
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: B
Recently,
Robin Wood pontificated in an extended chapter of his second edition of Hollywood - From Vietnam To Reagan… and Beyond (2003, reviewed elsewhere on this site) about her success
and how interesting seemingly benign material she chooses to be involved with
is. He is onto something. She is beautiful and has a great sense of joy
about her, but she is also for real and that is why she continues to be the
number one female box office star in the world.
In
another more explicit and outstanding example of this, here she is as the host,
narrator, and inadvertent star of Wild
Horses of Mongolia, an outstanding installment of the legendary PBS series Nature.
Because our media is so saturated with garbage, big stars like this are
wisely cautious to media unless absolutely necessary or for something
special. This was something very special
for Roberts to do and it works spectacularly well.
We learn
about the horses, as well as the people.
Mongolia was under Communist rule (read
oppression) for decades, and the portrait of the land, its people, and these
beautiful horses is a stunner. They have
survived and thrived. Roberts is
vulnerable and disarming throughout. I
had great respect for her before hand, now I have a whole new reason to feel
good about what I thought in the first place.
A second
show, Horse and Rider, may be more
down to earth but is not much less interesting.
It talks thoroughly about how people who ride horses become integrated
with them, and this goes beyond just sitting on one and going. They are not cars; they are great animals
with more intelligence than the size of their brains traditionally allowed them
to be associated with.
Both
episodes are presented in 1.78 X 1 letterboxing, though some credits are full
screen. They are in color and likely
shot in film, then transferred to High Definition. This is a second generation transfer that is
not bad. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
demonstrates nice Pro Logic surrounds.
There are no extras.
It is
noted that Nature is the longest
running series on natural history on TV.
With forerunners like Mutual of
Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, that makes sense.
Those shows helped bring the idea of nature on TV to life. This series fulfills that promise, as several
networks have arrived since totally devoted to the subject one way or
another. Now that’s quality television!
- Nicholas Sheffo
