Guns, Germs, and Steel
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Movie Reviews of Guns, Germs, and Steel
Movie Review: Incomplete Hence One Sided
Summary: 3 Stars
I guess the book, on which this is based, would have been better bcz an excerpt from the book in the 2nd DVD seems detailed.
But the DVD itself seems lacking a lot of facts, like
- there's no connection between the migrating nature of nomads and the development of weapons or steel/industry, compared to their counterparts.
- Or why didn't the forest tribes ever explore the world outside like nomads.
- Another major fact missed out is the reason that drive one society to dominate the other. Color is one recent example but then even a colored race had an empire in Egypt while the Romans ruled Europe..
....so to summarise the DVD is just 1 dimension, which one may view along with other works - like Civilasation, by BBC - much much better than this
Movie Review: Excellent Story - Overly Repetitive
Summary: 3 Stars
If you deleted the constant repetition of the title and some of the scenes put in for their emotional value only, it would have been a much better product.
Geography and luck play a major role in the early formation of civilizations. Unfortunately, the author does not expand beyond that simple theory and show how these advantages/disadvantages could be squandered/overcome by societies. His theory does explain why the Europeans were able to conquer most of the world, but does does not explain why it was the Europeans and not the Arabs, Egyptians, Greeks, etc... who had a much larger "headstart" than the Dutch and English.
Overall it was well worth my time and I recommend this DVD.
Movie Review: Great book, good documentary, but . . .
Summary: 3 Stars
The book is one of my all-time favorites. But it is true, as some reviewers have said, the documentary is not in-depth enough. If you weeded out the repeats of ideas and unnecessary dramatic details, it oculd be a 1/2 hour documentary. But, I might have liked this much better if I had not read the book first.
I would like to recommend another book, along the same lines: Conquests and Cultures, by Thomas Sowell. I'd love to see that one as a documentary.
Movie Review: Read the book
Summary: 3 Stars
The CDs were kind of interesting in that they covered some material not in the book, particularly the 3rd CD on the Dutch in Africa. Also a touching moment when Diamond breaks down when visiting a children's hospital in Zambia.
Overall tho, maybe 1/10th the information of the book, in 1/2 the time it would take to read the book. I prefer the more information dense format.
Movie Review: If you like National 3 Stars
If you like National Geographic specials, you'll love this. It captures everything you expect from Nat'l Geo.--beautiful visuals, stunning photography, gorgeous scenery, little depth. If you read GG&S, and expect this to be a Nova-, BBC-, or even PBS-class presentation of a scientific theory, you will be disappointed.