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Tarfumes.com - The Celts - Rich Traditions and Ancient Myths
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List Price: $39.98
Our Price: $25.25
Your Save: $ 14.73 ( 37% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Frank Delaney, Dave Allen, Enya, Miranda Green, Tania Grier
Directed By: David Richardson
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304814307
Format: Box set
ISBN: 6304814305
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 2000-03-07
Running Time: 330
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Celts gave Enya her first popular showcase, but there's far more to this epic documentary series than lushly ethereal music. Produced by BBC Scotland in 1987, the six-part, six-hour series shows its age with simple graphics and visual design, but writer-narrator Frank Delaney compensates with thorough scholarship and engaging presentation. "The Man with the Golden Shoes" begins with the Celts' earliest origins in Austria, studying burial remains to reveal a fiercely independent people, driven to expansion and exploration but failing to unite against the dominant forces of Rome. Subsequent episodes follow a categorical approach to Celtic history: "The Rise of Nations" in the British Isles leads to Celtic strongholds in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany; "A Pagan Trinity" surveys Celtic mythology and the transition (through cultural cross-pollination) from Druid priesthoods to Celtic-influenced Christian missionaries; "The Open-Ended Curve" illuminates the development of Celtic art, music, and literature; "The Final Conflict" explores the fading, and subsequent revival, of Celtic languages, and how this history is reflected in present-day (and often erroneous) definitions of "Celtic"; and "The Legacy" examines the tenacious efforts to preserve Celtic language and culture in modern society. Delaney and director David Richardson occasionally misfire with pointless dramatizations (including a Celtic history teacher droning monotonously to his bored students), but period re-creations and archaeological studies prove consistently fascinating, and the sheer volume of information is sure to reward multiple viewings. Vintage BBC films serve as welcome bonus features, including a musical survey of Ireland, a news feature on international Celtic connections, and interviews and performances by Enya at the dawn of her phenomenal solo career. While dispelling myths to reveal the truth behind 2,500 years of history, The Celts is must-see viewing for anyone interested in this fascinating cultural heritage. --Jeff Shannon
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Rich in history and music
Comment: Interesting what we can determine from old graves and remains. Enya adds her lovely music to give one goosebumps watching this documentary.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Celtic Documentary
Comment: There is no better general documentary on the Celts. Period. The early music of Enya makes it even better as the idea of a Celtic culture is explored and questioned. Is there still a "Celtic" way of looking at the world? This documentary gives us the basic history and follows the shift across Europe of the Celtic peoples and the remnant of their language. A must see if you have any interest in the history of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: English View of Celtic People
Comment: I've watched this several times and have become more annoyed each time. Clearly the assembled "scholars" are upper class English snobs, being served tea in one scene by an obedient butler. The tone is one of condescension toward peoples of Celtic origin, not only toward the Irish and Scottish, but also toward American Irish immigrants, who are depicted as coming all the way to America to live in tenements! Hardly so; the Irish and Scots have thrived in America, which says something about the effect of their subjugation by the English. I was particularly annoyed by a small song segment by a purported Scottish rock singer (not the Enya material -- that was superb). This group was dressed up in ridiculous "Scottish garb" to supposedly fulfill the American market for cheap entertainment and simple stereotypes. Not only was this music awful but I suspect it was manufactured for the "documentary." What finally really got my goat was one commentator with bad teeth, delicately sipping his tea, who declared the Celts to have a disposition toward "terrorism, driving badly," and 'a tendency to throw old mattress frames over gullies' [instead of building bridges]. Since the show went into modern history it is a severe omission, in my view, for no mention to have been made of various genocidal actions exercised by the English over Ireland since the 16th century. A far better documentary is "Out of Ireland" which captures the struggles and triumphs of the Irish and hails them as a necessary and now valued ingredient in America's melting pot. Their pluck, hard work, ingenuity and creativity have been at the heart of American popular culture and democracy since Andrew Jackson. The best part of the DVD is actually the 3-D cartoon at the beginning which depicts the English in a comical light. To this I say "Bang On!"
Pat from Rochester MN
Customer Rating:
Summary: I'm sorry...
Comment: but I can't agree with the others. This documentary started strong with the history and reenactments. Then went off into boring tangents like "modern celts" with scenes of people dancing in clubs and the like. The narrator is boring often talking endlessly, standing on some historical spot. I was waiting for Monty Python to come running through at any moment with a gag. I had to stop the dvd half way through out of sheer boredom. I would have loved to have seen more engrossing history, more reenactments, and less long-winded dry speeches in which I didn't learn much of anything.
Customer Rating:
Summary: what history programming should be
Comment: As a gift, I received the BBC series on British history by Simon Schama a few years back, and can't get enough. I have searched a long time to find anything of comparable quality. Everything I viewed was seriously disappointing, until I found this one. It does not talk down to me, or present history with the sensationalism of America's Most Wanted (which seems to be par for the course at The History Channel and increasingly PBS as well). I learned a great deal, and will be able to learn much more as I watch it again and again. I only wish I could find more BBC-produced histories, as they seem the only ones capable of doing it right.
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