Belliveau's reviews of National Geographic DVDs/videos

Botswana

Compelling footage of desperate hippos as geological processes dry up a river in northern Botswana. Two of the most memorable sequences involve elephants. The giant pachyderms methodically sniff at the dirt in the dry pan seeking any hint of water, and ultimately prove to be excellent hydrologists capable of creating a small lake. When the lake eventually dries up, a herd member succumbs. The camera captures one if the deceased's fellows gently gliding its trunk over its fallen friend for many minutes.

Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas

A harsh but fascinating look at the grim realities of life for the major predators of Africa. The director follows Matsuki the lioness as a cobra poisons her three cubs and the lioness herself. Mayhem and gore continue as an elder lioness, perhaps Matsuki's mother, gets trapped behind the battle lines of two fighting bands of lions. Hyenas, meanwhile, rout the lionesses in a battle for a carcass--my husband Lamont and I dropped our jaws in surprise at the sight of the hyenas getting the upper hand. There's plenty more drama, making this the Rambo of National Geographic videos and demonstrating that the hyena-lion rivalry depicted in The Lion King is all too authentic.

Lions of Darkness

Filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert provide a wildlife film with an innately powerful narrative almost like that of a Greek play. A lion king is deposed, three interlopers of different personalities take over, and there is conflict among their many offspring, including a tiny male named Tau. Tau's struggles almost prompt the filmmakers to intervene, but throughout he displays a boldness and canny curiosity quite the match of his larger cousins. A coda notes there are perhaps only 5,000 grown male lions in the world today; An Amateur's Guide to the Planet describes meeting a half-dozen of them in Kenya and Tanzania, and I had no idea their universe was so small.

Reflections on Elephants

Another winner from the Jouberts. Elephants adopt strays, rescue babies, mate on camera, fight to kill and sometimes enjoy miraculous stays of execution from their persecutor, the lion. A riveting look at a magnificent creature, and one with a chilling message: when the elephants innocently cross a river from their Botswana parkland into Namibia, they become fair game for poachers. Fortunately they return for a stranded comrade and wade back out of danger.

Wildlife Warriors

The Jouberts follow the astounding escalation of the war on wildlife poachers in Africa. After the last black rhino in Botswana is killed in 1990, the government mobilizes its army against poaching, which threatens both its national patrimony and tourism. Scenes reminiscent of Apocalypse Now show helicopters painted in military camouflage clipping over the bush as the army follows a trail of rhino and elephant carcasses, hastily abandoned campgrounds containing leopard pelts, and snares with grisly antelope carcasses. We get glimpses of the arrest of a minor band of poachers, sullen and stupid-looking men, and a final violent confrontation with part of the Shaile gang of poachers, who butcher animals for ivory and rhino horn.

The presence of tightening wire snares on the feet of slowly dying elephants and on the necks of antelopes seems to argue for a wildlife group to dart these animals with tranquilizers and remove the horrible necklaces.

Zebra Zebra: Patterns in the Grass

We watch birth and death on an annual, 300-mile zebra migration in Botswana. The Jouberts bring their consistently high quality of filmmaking to the topic of zebras, and we'll bet you never knew that they attempt to defend their young, form kinship bands of one stallion and six mares, and that fathers and sons have a lifelong bond. You'll learn much more: that zebras are capable of killing perceived threats (we won't give away this amazing footage) and that their numbers have plunged from 45,000 on the migration route in northwest Botswana to 7,000. The reason, in part, is hunting, both licensed and by poachers, for their skins, a topic explored in this film's conclusion. This sequence shows hunters shooting one of the strongest males, skinning him, and leave his carcass to be picked clean by vultures in six minutes flat. Revolting.

Brazil

Amazon: Land of the Flooded Forest

Monkeys with bright red faces, freshwater dolphins with flexible necks, Seuss-like sloths and high-jumping fish inhabit the world of giant Amazon. William Shatner narrates this informative documentary, which relates how the giant river used to flow into the Pacific before the Andes rose up. Today the Amazon floods the jungle to depths of as much as 50 feet during the rainy season. The documentary avoids the use of the Brazilian word igapo for some reason, sticking to the term "flooded forest." In any event, the images capture the feel of canoeing in the igapo, which An Amateur's Guide to the Planet describes as

a drowned forest feeling a bit like a cypress swamp. As our canoe glided forward under the woody canopy, the emerald water rippled in an almost syrupy way. Its deep green seemed to almost echo black, a look even darker than the brown, particle-laden waters of the Everglades.

This video notes that 2,000 fish species inhabit the Amazon, but overfishing means that large individual fish are no longer being caught.

Cameroon

Baka: People of the Forest

The Pygmies of the African rainforest don't call themselves pygmies, rather they are the Baka. Their lack of height is really not apparent, while their prodigious strength and forest knowledge is, in this fascinating glimpse of daily life in a pre-industrial people. We see a man with only a machete and a thick vine climb 120 feet to get honey from a bees' nest in the forest canopy, lowering the honeycomb using a basket woven of fronds. The women collect fruit, medicines and dam rivers to find fish, and help build transient, sturdy shelters of branches and leaves. All sing stories call-and-response style in the evening under the full moon. A man and his wife await the birth of their child in a simple thatch hut, and we observe simple rituals of rubbing herbal medicine on the wife's stomach. "Mama is going to give us a baby tonight," says the husband to their two sons, and we observe a tiny bundle on the floor of the hut the next day, and the grudging but touching acceptance of her younger brother, Ali. Memorable for its warmth and the simplicity of its peole.

Caribbean Sea

Jewels of the Caribbean Sea

Loggerhead turtles chase lobsters, thimble jellyfish dance to New Age music, dolphins engage in hypersex, and a thin fish hides from predators by wiggling up the anus of a sea cucumber (really!). Corals, one of the strangest living things around, are shown releasing clouds of sperm and eggs--it's so difficult to hold in mind that these are reproductive creatures. A red squid courts during the mating season by changing its dots. The film depicts an ecological marine zone as rich as the Western Pacific, which I couldn't recognize at all based on the below-average snorkeling in the Virgin Islands and St. Martin and St. Bart's. The Caribbean, barring Belize, has been struggling with pollution and fishing for at least a generation. Fittingly, however, towards the end the filmmakers acknowledge that humpback whales return each winter to an ever-more desolate home, lacking many of the corals and fish life of yore.

Chile

Puma: Lion of the Andes

A delightful look at Penny the puma, a handsome 6-foot-long big cat living in the remote stretch of Patagonia. She catches hares, stalks a camel-like creature called the guanaco and raises a litter of cubs. Filmmaker Hugh Miles wins the shy cat's trust and provides a winning voiceover in this very personal documentary. Lovely skies and light make for a top-level of cinematography in many of the shots.

China

China: Beyond the Clouds

I hesitated for a long time to review this pair of videos, fearing an overlong and over-laudatory feature guilty of the Pearl S. Buck syndrome, described as the "romanticization of things Chinese, with an unshakable element of awe as to the culture and a projection that Chinese could do no wrong, really, even though they might appear backward or criminal from time to time," as Sinologist Barry Henderson describes it.

When finally forced to review "China: Beyond the Clouds" by dint of having nearly run out of other videos available at the Pratt Library in Baltimore, I found it delightful! China is portrayed warts and all. We see drug dealing, the aftermath of a murder, and smaller areas of friction, including folks being insulted and criticized. We also see a people as boisterous and fun as they can be loud and contentious.

Director Phil Agland spent the early 1990s in Lijiang, a lovely Yunnan province town near Tibet and Vietnam. Guidebooks highly recommend it for its old town of wooden homes with courtyards and tile roofs. Visitors using this video as a preview for what to expect in China should be forewarned on several points: most of China is more claustrophobic and uglier than Lijiang, and should you desire to visit Lijiang itself, the town was devastated in a February 1996 earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale and leveled 400,000 homes in the area.

With that ironic backdrop, Agland should be commended for the way he captured the fascinating lives of a garrulous butcher whose nephew is murdered, a teacher whose young daughter, Little Swallow, has cerebral palsy, four hilarious grannies and a kindly acupuncturist named Dr. Tang. We found ourselves laughing out loud, mainly at the butcher's no-nonsense lectures to everyone in sight--except for the police handling the murder investigation.

We experience the genuineness of the Chinese people, the way the Party controls part of their life but not their essential energy and familial closeness. Fine documentary film-making with a laudable amount of access to a sometimes hidden society.

Panda Secrets of the Wild Panda

A baby panda, Xi Wang ("hope" in Chinese), poses adorably for the camera, but more important, she may hold clues as to why wild panda babies survive in the mountains of central China but rarely in captivity. Excellent information on the panda, as well as a good feel for the scientists who study them, whose lives seem almost as Spartan as those of most Chinese people. Their dedication becomes apparent when they talk to loggers about their plans to clearcut a mountain where pandas live, and then approach authorities to win preservation of 125 square miles.

Congo

The Urban Gorilla

Also shows United States, Britain, the Netherlands
What wondrous creatures, so ill served by the King Kong image! Bereft orphans feature in the opening sequences in the Congo, as well as a lonely adult in a Tacoma, Wash., sporting goods store. But soon we see Willie B. end decades of isolation in Zoo Atlanta, and make his first tentative steps since infancy under the blue sky of a natural enclosure. Other gorillas happily greet keepers they haven't seen in years, and dandle human babies with utmost care. These giants seem far, far nicer than chimps, and social in the sweeter way of lemurs and baboons.

Egypt

Egypt: Quest for Eternity (DVD)

A breathtaking video for those of us who haven't been to Egypt. As impressive as the pyramids outside Cairo are in these aerial views, the temples at Karnak, Luxor, Thebes and Abu Simbel are possibly more intriguing. Are these the grand-slam attraction for those interested in ancient history? They certainly seem to dwarf the temples of Greece and Java. The video also visits the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, where exquisite murals decorate the interiors of the tombs. Humidity, the vibration of tourists' feet, and salts in the stones threaten murals and engravings alike on the Egyptian temples. (An Amateur's Guide to the Planet explores this theme of dissolving world wonders and the importance of visiting them now, though violence against tourists in Egypt may dampen the immediacy of this destination.) Egypt VHS version

You can also purchase this DVD as part of a Egypt Set 2-DVD set, which also includes Into the Great Pyramid.

Secrets Egypt: Secrets of the Pharaohs (DVD)

This may be the strangest NatGeo DVD ever! Two of the secrets of the pharaohs are presented first, and are reasonably interesting: Where did they get the huge amounts of limestone needed to build the Great Pyramids of Giza? And, what do two large chambers under the complex contain?

So far so good, but then we get to the third secret: How did they mummify the pharaohs? Well, a modern-day medical archaeologist, Ronn Wade, decides to recreate the process using a cadaver at the University of Maryland! He buys the necessary anointing oils, drying salts and wrapping linen for the most part in Egypt. Then proceeds on-screen to handle the remains back here, at the hospital in Baltimore. All moist organs of the body must be removed before mummification. He jabs a hook through the nose to get at the brain to extract it in the traditional style ... uh, yikes. This footage is right up there with the U.S. Army documentary I saw at a U.M. death education (really) class on how to do an autopsy, which left much of the class reeling. Anyway, see how you feel watching it: I felt a mixture of discomfort at desecration of the dead, mixed with utter fascination. The mummification process took 35 days. At another point we get a tour of famous pharaohs whose mummies are in Cairo, and one must admit awe at seeing great historical personages whose remains do contain a glint of a real person. Egypt VHS version

You can also purchase this DVD as part of a Egypt Set 2-DVD set, which also includes Egypt Eternal - The Quest for Lost Tombs.

You can also purchase Quest for Eternity

and Secrets of the Pharaohs

as part of a Egypt Set 3-VHS video set, which also includes Mysteries of Egypt.

Georgia (U.S.)

Realm of the Alligator

The Okefenokee swamp lies on the Georgia-Florida border and comes from an Indian word that means trembling earth. "Swampers" lived in the park's few solid areas until the declaration of the swamp as a national park. This video joins alligator experts who explain that the alligator is less menacing than the crocodile, with only a handful of fatal encounters on the alligator's side of the ledger. The swamp reveals the beauty of a lost place, with woodpeckers, otters who play with turtles as though they were beach balls, and alligator mothers building nests and shepherding their newborns to water--exactly as shown in the Crocodiles: Here Be Dragons video that takes viewers to Tanzania.

Hawaii

The Great Whales

A bit dated, but still contains interesting scenes of scientists photographing humpback whales off the coast of Maui, and being proferred a head to scratch as the whales get more and more comfortable with observation. Also shows Greenpeace's efforts against Japanese and Soviet whaling.

Hawaii: Strangers in Paradise

Enjoyable scenes depict the splendors of Molokai's sea cliffs, a wondrous re-enactment of the arrival of the first Polynesians in Hawaii, and aerial views of Frenchmen's Reef, northwest of the inhabited islands of the Hawaiian chain, where the Hawaiian monk seal lives and sea turtles come to lay their eggs. The script acknowledges the dreadful effects of both Polynesians and Europeans, who cleared the land and introduced creatures such as rats, cattle and ants that have done their best to wipe out native wildlife. Shots of eroded red soil washing into the ocean and turning it mud-brown are quite rattling.

Yet the scholarship seems contestable on two points. We hear that stereotypes of "easy living" are not true of tropical islands, though much evidence exists of ingenious inventions, such as fish traps, developed by Polynesians, requiring little upkeep, and shattering European notions of the centrality of work, a thesis developed in a sidebar called "Living on easy street" in An Amateur's Guide to the Planet.

And we see a gruesome dog hunt and shooting of a wild pig on Molokai, ostensibly justified by how the pigs eat vegetation and make wallows that create erosion. Yet some nature groups are fighting the cruel wire traps that lead to the slow starvation of feral pigs and also question whether their hunting can be justified given that natural Hawaii has already been so radically altered by so many factors other than the pigs alone.

Volcano! (DVD)

Also shows Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, Africa
What could be more dramatic than rivers of molten lava running down from vents on the Big Island of Hawaii? Tremendous shots of volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft getting so close to hot spots around the globe that their shoes threaten to melt and their cameras become too hot to touch. Volcano! VHS version

Hong Kong

Hong Kong: A Family Portrait

Though the boat colony depicted in this video is largely gone, we still see certain essential features of Hong Kong's people: brilliance at trading, a love of mah johng, gambling and fortune telling, and the centrality of the banquet and the color red at joyous occassions. A mix of storytelling still relevant to the colony and valuable historical perspective.

India

Hidden World of the Bengal Tiger

We watched this right after Tigers of the Snow and noticed how much smaller Bengals are than their Siberian cousins (and Bengal tigers are not small). We follow a mother, Lakshmi, and her three offspring through life in the Kanha reserve, under the watchful eye of local mahouts who patrol on elephant. Protected by the mahouts from poachers, male rivals to Lakshmi's mate pose the main threat to the family, and a potentially fatal one. Quite a typical NatGeo offering, with animal stars of varying personalities, sweet moments of tiger cub play (the Disney factor) and countervailing gore.

The Great Indian Railway

Both the epic architecture of the Indian train stations and the movable party of its passengers will intrigue the traveler interested in great journeys. The toy train chugs up the Himalayas, commuters pack themselves in to get to jobs in India's great cities, and tourists (including an amusing Australian couple) and Indians alike ride a plush express to Rajastan. Loyal staff for the world's largest employer, the Indian railways, manually switch trains, give the OK to proceed, check the tracks daily and close grates at crossings. The director also follows the retirement of the giant steam locomotives, as a chapter in classic travel closes.

Ireland

Ballad of the Irish Horse

Clever, sturdy and kind, the Irish horse: "His greatest asset, for the amateur, he seems to be more clever, more easy to deal with, and he seems to give a longer period of enjoyment than a Continental horse," says Eddie Mackin, international show jumper. A lovely look at horse markets and fairs in the country and Dublin. We see redheaded children taking jumping lessons, elderly couples caring for a milk-cart pony and vets giving fine show horses Guinness three times a week, because after all, doctors prescribe it for people.

Italy

In the Shadow of Vesuvius

This video shortchanges Pompeii a bit, in favor of a longer look at the excavations at Herculaneum, where we see dozens of huddled skeletons under an arch at the seacoast, unable to board boats to escape the catastrophic explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Interesting update to the 1944 eruption that wrecked much of San Sebastiano, and the jawdropping fact that people have reconstructed this town right under the dormant volcano! We also see a fishing towns west of Vesuvius that (wisely) is mostly abandoned, and the disruption to the lives of people who once lived there.

Japan

Living Treasures of Japan

Seventy Japanese, many elderly, receive small stipends from the government to preserve traditional crafts and performances, including dying indigo cloth, performing kabuki and bunrako, firing pots, brewing ceremonial tea and casting swords. This video gives an insight into a side of Japan largely hidden from travelers (and perhaps lost to the Japanese themselves, in a way not true of Bali's performing arts, for example). On the one hand, the video may (unintentionally) severely mislead potential visitors, evoking a Japan that has been lost for centuries. On the other, one must commend Japan for making a conscious effort to preserve its traditional customs.

Kenya

Elephant

Also shows Sri Lanka, Thailand, Namibia and other areas of Africa
A video of covering much of the spectrum of man's interactions with elephants, from steady work in teak forests of India and Thailand and religious ceremonies in Sri Lanka to brutal beatings of young captured Asian elephants. In Africa we see the gentle work of an English woman who raises orphans near Tsavo National Park in Kenya and the gunning down of animals who are culled. In Portland's zoo we see a baby elephant being born and having a hard time standing on his soaked cement-floor cage. Unintentionally, this may be one of the most damning looks at how humans treat other sentient creatures in the entire National Geographic catalog.

Keepers of the Wild

Also shows Belize, Ontario, San Francisco, Atlanta
A charming documentary that takes us first to a very gentle elephant keeper in Ontario who lines up parks and ponds where he can take his giant charges for a bit of play and fresh scenery. We also follow the saga of Pumpkinjoe, the much-traded orangutan with a sweet nature, whose keeper says he "always gives people a chance." You'll get a glimpse of Belize's charming national zoo and April the tapir, and an extended look at a private park in Kenya protecting 16 rhinos. The closing scenes of a giraffe roundup and relocation show the astounding sight of these beautiful but temporarily dazed creatures going onto a special high-sided truck, yet still their long necks rise above the sides, and the giraffes sniff the breeze like dogs in a pickup truck.

Next Previous

Belliveau's reviews of National Geographic DVDs / videos