Conquistadors
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Movie Reviews of Conquistadors
Movie Review: You feel this story
Summary: 5 Stars
Whether it shows a lot of actors in costume or not isn't really the point. He takes you through areas as a tour guide and tells you the history. The last part about De Vacca and his revelations and the extraordinary journey was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed this just as much as I do Ken Burns' documentaries, it is a different style. I don't want to see everyone do things the same way. As far as him showing art, he did show art, he also showed you by trying many things how these people survived, what they ate, how they cooked, how they made plows, how the Aztecs made weapons that were inferior to the steel ones the Spaniards came equipped with. Also, the journey of the Incas leaving their beautiful land to try and put separation between themselves and the conquistadors was heartbreaking. I very much enjoyed it and will look forward to more of Michael Wood's exuberant storytelling.Movie Review: Awesome!
Summary: 5 Stars
Your own personally guided tour through a sweeping historical narrative. The author takes you over the same paths, roads, jungles and rivers as the Conquistadors traveled. The photography is OUTSTANDING. It adds to the feeling of being there. You can still see remnants of old cities and roads built from stone. You visit the same native peoples as existed in the 1500's. All of this adds to the depth of the story.
I can't say enough good things about this DVD. It is another fine PBS production.
Movie Review: not wide screen
Summary: 4 Stars
I was looking forward to watching this series after having seen Mr Wood's history of India series on PBS.
It is very informative, well made and would be a 5 star product if it were not for the fact that it's advertised as 1.85:1 (wide screen in my books) but is actually a scaled down to 4:3 wide screen.
My TV is able to zoom in, so I can compensate, but the picture quality is not what I'd been looking forward too. Hence 4 stars.
Other than that a great documentary.
Movie Review: Much Less when Much More was needed
Summary: 3 Stars
I was DEEPLY disappointed by this effort by one of the best history
presenters out there. His seminal work, "Trojan War" opened whole
doors for me and is a superb production on almost every level even
if it is somewhat dated by today's standards.
But "Conquistadors" was quite another matter and one need only look
at the contents page of the book to see why. Whereas the book was SIX
chapters long, the video is only FOUR parts. Painfully for me, Wood
chose to leave out almost any mention of the Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
from the video although it is the final chapter of his book. The tale
of de Vaca is perhaps the most fantastic of the Conquistador Tales if
only for its' tragedy and futility. And these qualities are matched by
the sacrifice and determination of those same adventurers.
More to the point, it is THE classic tale of the search for the "Seven
Cities of Gold" that is the culmination of the Conquistador Era.
Instead, Wood choses to conclude with a meandering tale of lost men in
the Amazon Basin that while it is heroic it is also distant from any
of the previous tales as can be. The longer Wood worked his way down-
river the more I was reminded of his early effort in the old "Great
Rail Journeys" PBS/BBC series where he beautifully summed up the
ravages of Colonialism whilst retracing the ruined remains of the old
Congo Railway.
That interpretation of the Congo Railway was a brilliant re-tracing,
this video is just plain up the creek without a paddle. A rental, maybe.
No way a purchase. Borrow the book from the library if you like and
then if you like what you read come back here and look for reprints of
the original histories Wood drew from. Those ARE worth your time indeed.
Movie Review: good classroom conversation piece
Summary: 3 Stars
From the comments made by some reviewing this series, I can see that they are not practicing historians. Most modern historians understand the biases of especially contemporary and nineteenth century writers. It is interesting that they would question the presentation of modern research and not those of the past. That said, this presentation is a modern interpretation of the period of Spanish conquest. The one point that it shows better than most interpretations is the role that Native peoples played in the conquest of the Americas. Used in a classroom, the series is a good place to initiate conversations on cultural misunderstanding and conflict as well as the events portrayed.
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