VideoVista covers rental and retail titles in all genres and movie or TV categories, with filmmaker interviews, auteur profiles, top 10 lists,
plus regular prize draws.
HOME PAGE
INDEX OF ALL REVIEWS
SEARCH THIS SITE
COMPETITIONS
FORTHCOMING REVIEWS
TOP 10 LISTS
INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
RETRO REVIEWS SECTION
ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS
READERS' COMMENTS
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
SITE MAP
LINKS
SUPPORT THIS SITE -
SHOP USING THESE LINKS
visit other Pigasus Press sites...
The ZONE - genre nonfiction
Soundchecks - music reviews
Rotary Action - helicopter movies
|
January 2010
creator: Carl Sagan
780 minutes (E) 1980
Fremantle DVD Region 2 retail
RATING: 10/10
review by Steven Hampton
|
Cosmos: A Personal Journey
Carl Sagan (1934-96) was an engaging orator, educator, and populariser of science. The intro by Sagan's widow Ann Druyan, a co-writer on this
excellent US television documentary series, makes plain the great man's unique appeal, noting how he was able to influence many lives.
Comprising 13 episodes on five discs, this DVD boxset presents journeys across the 'cosmic ocean' in a 'spaceship of the imagination', and it's the
satisfying combination of Sagan's lectures, prosaic not jargonistic or riddled with buzzwords yet often poetic and lyrical, and engaging recreations
of various historical epochs - during which many important discoveries were made - that ensures this landmark factual remains consistently entertaining
and informative.
What's particularly striking is the methodical, yet skilled, presentation of scientific concepts and details, making even densely compacted esoteric
information of every instructive essay accessible to intelligent laypersons. Sagan was an extraordinarily gifted explainer of difficult ideas,
accounting for a vast range of scientific lessons or general knowledge for broadcast TV, just as Isaac Asimov's many non-fiction books did in
the printed medium.
This strongly visual programme was made long before the advent of CGI, but there is much to admire here in the clever use of innovative video
effects and imaginative lighting design. Sagan guides us through a virtual tour of the lost Alexandria library and laments the catastrophic folly
that caused its appalling destruction.
One Voice In The Cosmic Fugue discusses evolution and natural section as fact, and considers the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
How this might now be received in the America of today (where serial killers get more respect than atheists) is perhaps one of the great, possibly
imponderable, questions of our time.
"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
The lively third episode centres on an insightful dramatised biopic of 15th century German theology student turned mathematician, Johannes Kepler,
who formulated laws of planetary motion despite the era's general but notable lack any distinctions between astronomy and astrology.
Episode four considers the hellish case of Venus, warns about the climate changes on Earth with global warming if pollution remains unchecked,
and delivers yet another reiteration of the necessary open-mindedness of science while demanding evidence to support any farfetched theories.
Simplicity is often the key to revealing complexities. A line-animation compresses 40 billion years of evolution into a 40-second montage. The
history of the universe is condensed in scale to a single year on the 'cosmic calendar', to demonstrate how short - in comparative duration - is
the existence of multi-species life, particularly with reference to the last day, eleventh hour, appearance of humankind on Earth.
"Everything is not part of some greater plan,
nor is all necessarily under control"
Travellers' Tales links the space probes and planetary landings of the Voyager and Viking missions with the 17th century's Dutch enlightenment
where distinguished polymath Christiaan Huygens first devised the basics of theoretical physics. While an edgily melancholic tone characterises a
couple of later episodes, describing how Pythagoras and Plato both sought to derail experimental enquiry despite Sagan's recognition of a stirring
cosmopolitan society nurtured by the ancient Greeks.
The brilliantly subtle and hauntingly memorable score by Vangelis ably supports a variety of scenes portraying early pioneers of science, or sci-fi
sequences aboard the Sagan starship, where space views are reflected in the presenter's upturned face, so rapt in wonder, contemplating cloudy stellar
vistas, the Jovian system of moons, or Saturn's magnificent rings, as he embodies the purity and innocence of speculative 'sensawunda'.
Effectively, a broad swipe at presenting a generous compact of the sum of all vital human knowledge this remains such an astonishing achievement
because it's hard to imagine anything like it being produced today. Indeed, here's the big story of life, the universe, and everything, made with
the accent firmly upon easy accessibility, but without any loss of depth.
Buoyed by Sagan's profoundly moving enthusiasms for science and exquisite
succinctness of expression, Cosmos is a hurtling express train-of-thought, one that daringly lumps together supreme thinkers Leonardo Da Vinci
and Albert Einstein, as prominent figureheads of humanity's "great soaring passionate intelligence."
The DVD extras assemble tenth anniversary science updates, filmed by Sagan back in 1991, which fill in some gaps, while pointing out many advances
in certain fields, especially astronomy.
|
|
|
