The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C+ Program: B-
Pierce
Brosnan hosts The Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World (2000), originally shown on The Discovery Channel. Running over an hour, it deals with the original
and still amazing monuments that we still cannot figure out the how of their
construction.
Those
seven wonders are:
Pyramid of Giza (Giza, Egypt)
Hanging Garden of Babylon (Babylon, Iraq)
Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Olympia, Greece)
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey)
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Ephesus, Turkey)
Colossus of Rhodes (Rhodes, Greece)
Pharos of Alexandria (Alexandria, Egypt)
The DVD
is split up in chapters for each. Brosnan
makes for a good voiceover host and the writing for him is a plus. The only thing that does get in the way are
the brief reenactments that are too numerous for their own good. Otherwise, it is a good show.
The full
frame, color, videotaped image shows its analog origins. Some footage is on film or in stills, but it
is tape all the way otherwise. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds that is not bad. Extras include What Did They Look Like? (computer reconstructions of decaying or
lost monuments), Alexander and the Seven
Wonders (The Great’s connection with all of them, featuring a letterboxed
trailer for the 1956 CinemaScope production distributed by United Artists), Hard Hats and History (I.M. Pei comments
on the influence of the superlative seven), and The Seven Alternate Wonders (the modern equivalent are covered,
including: The Parthenon (Athens, Greece), Petra (Jordan), Jerusalem (Israel),
The Colosseum (Rome, Italy), The Great Wall of China (Beijing, China), The Clay
Army (X’ian, China) and Stonehenge (England).
Those
additions round out this DVD nicely.
Here is a disc everyone can appreciate with items you will not see on
TV. The
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World helps set some records straight. It should be noted that the World Trade Center is shown in passing, but not
discussed. As it shows up towards the
end of the program, it offers an irony they could have never imagined.
- Nicholas Sheffo
