The Ascent of Man
by Adrian Malone
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dr. Jacob BronowskiDirector: Adrian Malone
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Published)
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 676 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-01
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc.
Movie Reviews of The Ascent of Man
Movie Review: Humanity's power of knowledge to empower. As essential as Sagan's Cosmos.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Ascent of Man (1973) is a 13 part documentary about the history of science by Jacob Bronowski. It inspired Carl Sagan to make Cosmos (1980). The format for The Ascent of Man is based on Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (1969). It is hard not to mention The Ascent of Man without talking a little bit about Cosmos.
The Ascent of Man is widely regarded as a milestone in documentary film making. It maybe the best history of science documentary series ever made. More than 30 years later Bronowski's intensity to describe a world history of science remains unparalleled in the annuals of educational television. It will remain powerful for quite some time to come. The Executive Producer Adrian Malone went on to direct Carl Sagan's Cosmos after it.
The Ascent of Man remains an indispensable series for the human condition. It changes the way people think about themselves, their lives and the world they live in. It is a major conscious raiser. The Ascent of Man also has a bigger impact on the human condition than Cosmos does. While Cosmos treats us as the universe's way of understanding itself, The Ascent of Man is about humanity's hope in getting the right knowledge in the right way, to all individuals across the globe. That knowledge is the scientific method and its results.
The Ascent of Man is also harder hitting than Cosmos in terms of its psychological impact. Cosmos is a gentle going voyage through the universe while The Ascent of Man brings us right into the thick of it with the struggle of mankind through primitive life to liberation through logical thinking.
The Ascent of Man will reveal how life really is and what you need to do about it. Bronowski is also more abrupt than Sagan in how he reveals things. Death is death and sex is sex. Nothing is buttered up. Nothing is omitted. The facts are laid bare for all to see. If you can learn what The Ascent of Man teaches and retain the information (by repeat viewings) you will find yourself a lot more alert to the world than the average person. These are the things that matter so that we can live life. Without them, we simply wouldn't be here to make and watch programs like The Ascent of Man.
The Ascent of Man slowly builds up to directly challenging the ideas of absolutist politics and dogmatic belief structures without offending but by simply being subversive with the application of critical thinking and thus revolutionary in thought and practice from construction of the arch to developing the atom bomb. Bronowski has no time for anything less than the reevaluation of everything humans have learned to date. While Cosmos demystifies, The Ascent of Man upsets stagnation. It is about the history of those who don't strive for improvement when faced with those who do. It is about the harshness of survival but continued existence also needs to incorporate cooperation and the freedom of information.
Episode 1: "Lower than the Angels"
Grunion fish. Adaptation. Early astronomy. Origins of humans in Africa. Early hominoid fossils. Upright walking. Man in action. The evolution of the skull. Fossil record. Hunting cooperation. Migration of humans. Ice ages. Discovery of fire. Laplanders. Cave paintings and consciousness.
Episode 2: "The Harvest of the Seasons"
Last ice age. Bakhtiari nomadic life in Persia. Hybridization of wheat. Jericho. The Israelis. The plough. The lever. The wheel. 2000 BC horseback riding, Mongolian horseback games, the beginning of war and the thieving way of life 1200-1300. The settled man.
Episode 3: "The Grain in the Stone"
The migration of man to America from Asia across the Bering straight by proof of blood groups. The tools of early man. Stone masonry. The conquering of the Inca Empire. The Greeks. Beams and arches. Freemasons. Michelangelo. Watts Towers.
Episode 4: "The Hidden Structure"
Time lapse of the ignition of the match. Fire. Smelting copper and bronze. Japanese sword making. Gold. Male and female symbols and alchemy. Paracelsus. Joseph Priestly. Fundamentals of chemistry. Atomic theory. John Dalton.
Episode 5: "Music of the Spheres"
History of mathematics. Musical notes. Pythagoras theorem. Euclid. Ptolemy. Islam. The astrolabe. The decimal system. Mathematical patterns and symmetry. Geological patterns. Perspective. Uniform motion. Kepler. Fluxions (Calculus).
Episode 6: "The Starry Messenger"
Easter Island. The Pole star and bird migration. Ptolemy. Copernicus. The revolution of revolution. Telescopes. Galileo. Secret Vatican archives (the deep secret stuff is only the size of a wardrobe). The trial of Galileo.
Episode 7: "The Majestic Clockwork"
Newton and gravity. Newton and the color spectrum. The play "Three hours after marriage". Curvature of space. Clocks. Einstein and light. Relativity.
Episode 8: "The Drive for Power"
The revolutions. The Industrial Revolution. The American Revolution. The French Revolution. Automation. Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Paine. The lunar society. The steam engine. Energy in nature. Forms of energy. James Prescott Joule.
Episode 9: "The Ladder of Creation"
Naturalists. Evolution. Voyage of the Beagle. Darwin. Wallace. South American Rainforests. Natural selection. Spontaneous generation hypothesis. Fermentation. Evolutionary evidence in human chemistry. Molecular evidence for evolution. Proto-Earth and the absence of oxygen. Miller-Urey experiment. Leslie Orgel experiments with ice.
Episode 10: "World within World"
Crystals. Salt. Paracelsus. Atomic weight. Mendeleev. Atomic families. JJ Thompon. Divisible atoms. Electrons. Atomic structure. Ernest Rutherford. Electron orbits. Bohr. Working atomic model. Planck. Quantum energy. Moseley. Chadwick. Neutron. Fermi. Transformation of the nucleas. Bishop James Ussher. Hans Bethe. Matter evolves. Nuclear fusion. Rudolf Clausius. Ludwig Boltzmann. Thermodynamics. Plasma physics.
Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"
Blind persons sense of touch and interpretation. Scientific exploration. There is no absolute knowledge. The fact of imperfection. The electromagnetic spectrum. Heinrich Hertz. Radar. Radiowaves. Inferred. William Hershel. White light and colors. Microscopes. Ultraviolet. X-rays. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Von Laue. Electron microscopes. Areas of uncertainty. Max Born. Werner Heisenberg. Erwin Schrödinger. Louis de broile. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Max Planck's quantum measurement. Principle of tolerance. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and racism. Nazi germany. All knowledge is limited. Leó Szilárd. Atomic energy. Chain reaction of neutron bombardment. Hiroshima. The Holocaust. Auswitz. The problem of absolute knowledge and despotism. Humanity.
Episode 12: "Generation upon Generation"
Austria. Gregor Mendel. Fertilization. Dominant and recessive. Chromosomes. Linkage. Heredity. Male and female produce only male and female. Burning of Mendel's work. Cell division. Sexual reproduction. Natural selection. James Watson. Francis Crick. DNA. A live birth of a human baby. Bee reproduction. Cloning. Adam and Eve. Sexual behaviour.
Episode 13: "The Long Childhood"
Social solitary. Plasticity of mind. The identity of man. The human brain and functions. Decision making. Utopia. Easter Island. Confirming to adults. The freedom of thought. Dogma. Erasmus. Greek thought. Sir Thomas Moore. Johannes Frobenius. Guardians of integrity. John von Neumann. Game theory. Democracy of the intellect. A scientific society. Knowledge for the individual. Responsibility. The ascent of man is bringing the past into the living of the now.
Extras: "Interview with Sir. David Attenborough"
Sir David Attenborough discusses how he ran the BBC2 to present the audience with scientific programs which started with Kenneth Clark's Civilization. David Attenborough then describes Bronowski (calling him Brono effectionately) recalling the man's character.
Jacob Bronowski died a year after The Ascent of Man aired. It was thus the culmination of the views of one of the smartest men that ever lived before he ceased to be. Bronowski was a genius. Bronowski personally knew many of the scientists he covers in this series. You couldn't hope to have a better mind talking about the nature of mankind. There is a book of the same name as the series by Bronowski. Get this series and get as informed as Bronowski. You will never look at yourself the same way again.
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