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By WADE GOSSETT
With the 2004 Summer
Olympics being held in Athens, a slew of DVDs
about all things Greek are being released. Urgency
of this sort can result in errors, and there's a
very curious one with this History Channel
release: The DVD is ostensibly a compilation of
three documentaries on the ancient Olympic games
(which originated in Greece about three millennia
ago) and Greek mythology: "The First Olympics,"
"Blood and Honor at the First Olympics" and "The
Greek Gods."
However, the two principal documentaries on the
Olympics are one and the same. Not totally
identical, since "Blood and Honor at the First
Olympics" is narrated by Leonard Nimoy and "The
First Olympics" is not. Apart from that, the
documentaries, including the narration text, are
the same. Watch one and you have seen both. You
will learn the origins of games, get a sense of
ancient Greek culture and appreciate the religious
importance placed on sports back then. There are
visits to archeological sites, as well as several
recreations. The feature also focuses on several
sports, some of which are still with us (boxing,
wrestling, pentathlon) and some that are not
(chariot racing).
"The Greek Gods" is very basic, a sort of
just-the-facts survey of Greek mythology. It's
almost as if it was made up of index cards. If you
know nothing of the ancient Greek Gods, the
information it provides will be useful. However,
the fairy tale magic with which mythology is
imbued is conspicuously absent from this
presentation.
The only extra feature is a list of Olympic medal
rankings that's arranged by country. The three
programs are presented in their original TV aspect
ratio of 1.33:1 and the audio is in Dolby 2.0. |
