Egypt's Golden Empire

Starring:John Ray (IV), Professor Antonio Loprieno, Nicole Douek, Kate Spence (II), Zahi Hawass, Kent Weeks, Paul Brightwell, Professor David O'Conner
Director: James Hawes, Ciara Byrne, Richard Bradley (II)
Studio: Pbs (Direct)
Product Type: DVD

Description

Empires Collection: The Dynasties (5 Disc Gift Set) - Empires Collection: The Dynasties is a compilation of five outstanding stories of some of histories greatest dynasties.

Egypt's Golden Empire
In 1570 B.C., when Rome was still a marsh and the Acropolis was an empty rock, Egypt was already 1000 years old. Although the period of the pyramid-builders was long over, Egypt lay on the threshold of its greatest age. The New Kingdom would be an empire forged by conquest, maintained by intimidation and diplomacy, and remembered long after its demise. Led by a dynasty of rich personalities, whose dramatic lives changed the course of civilization, Egypt's Golden Empire presents the most extraordinary period in Egyptian history: from 1570 B.C. to 1070 B.C., when the Egyptian Empire reached its zenith.

The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance - From a small Italian community in 15th century Florence, the Medici family would rise to rule Europe in many ways. Using charm, patronage, skill, duplicity and ruthlessness, they would amass unparalleled wealth and unprecedented power. They would also ignite the most important cultural and artistic revolution in Western history- the European Renaissance. But the forces of change the Medici helped unleash would one day topple their ordered world. An epic drama played out in the courts, cathedrals and palaces of Europe, this series is both the tale of one family's powerful ambition and of Europe's tortured struggle to emerge from the ravages of the Dark Ages.

Japan: Memoirs Of A Secret Empire
Commanding shoguns and samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans -- all were part of the Japanese "renaissance" -- a period between the 16th and 19th centuries when Japan went from chaos and violence to a land of ritual refinement and peace. But stability came at a price: for nearly 250 years, Japan was a land closed to the Western world, ruled by the Shogun under his absolute power and control. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire brings to life the unknown story of a mysterious empire, its relationship to the West, and the forging of a nation that would emerge as one of the most important countries in the world.

The Roman Empire in the First Century
Two thousand years ago, at the dawn of the first century, the ancient world was ruled by Rome. Through the experiences, memories and writings of the people who lived it, this series tells the story of that time - the emperors and slaves, poets and plebeians, who wrested order from chaos, built the most cosmopolitan society the world had ever seen and shaped the Roman empire in the first century A.D.

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization
The Greeks - Classical Greece of the 4th and 5th centuries, B.C. was a magnificent civilization that laid the foundations for modern science, politics, warfare, and philosophy, and produced some of the most breathtaking art and architecture the world has ever known. Through the eyes and words of the great heroes of ancient Greece, this dazzling production charts the rise, triumph, and eventual decline of the world's first democracy. Now, through dramatic storytelling and state-of-the-art computer animation, you witness history, art, and government with giants like Pericles, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Customer Reviews:

A really good review of the 5 civilizations covered.......2007-03-09

I've been reviewing areas of history that I don't usually cover to balance out my general knowledge. No video can compress into a couple of hours the libraries that have been written on these subjects, but I watched them with a pad nearby and started searching names and topics for further study. Then I added books on those areas to my wish list here on Amazon.

All in all, each disc is a great review if you're rusty or a place to start if you're moving into new areas of history.

Excellent collection.......2007-01-05

I was very impressed with this series. I learned very much, escpecailly about the Medici's. If you enjoy history/documentaries you'll love this collection. I was so impressed I've ordered other Empire series. Props to PBS on this one!

Average customer rating:

Very informative intoduction!
you know
Good Introductory Material

Empires - Egypt's Golden Empire
Starring: Kent Weeks , John Ray (IV) , Paul Brightwell , Professor Antonio Loprieno , and Nicole Douek
Director: James Hawes , Richard Bradley (II) , and Ciara Byrne
Manufacturer: PBS Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( E ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All | PBS | Specialty Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Empires - The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization
Empires - The Roman Empire in the First Century
Empires - Islam: Empire of Faith
Empires - The Kingdom of David - The Saga of the Israelites
Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

ASIN: B0007KIFVE
Release Date: 2005-04-05

Description

In 1570 B.C., Rome was a marsh, the Acropolis an empty rock, but Egypt was 1,000 years old. The pyramid-builders were gone, yet Egypt still awaited its New Kingdom, an empire forged by conquest and remembered for eons. EGYPT'S GOLDEN EMPIRE comes to life through letters and records evoking the passion and riches of a time when Egypt was the center of the known world, its Pharaohs called gods, and great cities, temples and tombs built.

Customer Reviews:

Very informative intoduction!.......2006-04-17

I rated this DVD with 4 stars because it started the story of the ancient Egyptians civilization from Chapter 2; Chapter one is the old kingdom of ancient Egypt. The missing chapter is a very rich era of Egypt old civilization since it covers the origin of the religion, the idea of death in ancient Egypt civilization, the idea of resurrection, the idea of building the pyramids (the king tomb), the explanation of the title "pharaoh" which means " the owner of the big house (i.e the big house refers to Egypt)"...etc. There are a lot of weak conclusions in this documentary, lack of solid evidences; for example, the movie mentioned that by the end of pharaohs' era the Egyptians themselves started to steal the tombs and the gold of their dead pharaohs!! This is a false claim since most of the ancient Egyptians' treasures are displayed in all well-known world museums!!_The treasures of ancient Egyptians had been stolen more likely in the recent history during/after discovering the tombs!
Moreover, I find the explanation of the pharaoh Akhenaten's religious revolution is really so superficial! According to the documentary movie, Amenhopet IV (Akhenaten) was worshiping Aton(translated according to the movie as "Sun god"; Sun god of ancient Egyptian civilization is known as "Ra or Re" pronounced as Raah" not "aton"!...Akhenaten in his scriptures, the great hymn, mentioned that God is so obvious like the aton "the sun disk" ; thus, Akhenaton did not worship the sun itself but, he used "aton" as a metaphor to describe God!...As the movie showed clearly, the ancient Egyptians priests did their best to defame Akhenaton and his religion. It seems that the priests of Thebes were so strong since Akhenaten built a new city called Akhetaten (located at Tel El-Amarna) and left the religious capital of ancient Egypt, Thebes(Located at upper Egypt). The idea of leaving Thebes to a new city "Akhetaten" is nearly very close to the idea Moses exodus!! In fact, Egyptians knew God before the born of Abraham (PBUH); the myth of Isis and Osoris (Enoch (Iddris) (PBUH) had been changed to Osoris) is an obvious evidence. Abraham, PBUH, came to Egypt and married Hajjar, then Joseph (PBUH) came to Egypt and stayed in Egypt for long time. After that Moses was born in Egypt and stayed there also for long time until the exodus (Since the exact time of exodus is not precisely known thus, it could be after or before Akhenaten's era). Those prophets, for sure, improved the idea of worshiping one God among ancient Egyptians and, in turn, could affect Akhenetan ideology and made him refuse the polytheism of ancient Egypt civilization and led to the conflicts among Akhenaten and the ancient Egyptian priests _given that Akhenaten himself was not a messenger/prophet of God!....The title of this DVD could explain why this movie has started with chapter 2(although this made the STORY incomplete)...Nevertheless, I find this DVD is so interesting since you will be familiar with major ancient Egypt history(the middle and the new ancient Egypt kingdoms). The majority of people understand title pharaoh (usually a man's title) as analogous to Tyrant/oppressor, this DVD provided clear historical evidences that Pharaoh could a diplomat, religious figure, statesman,..etc and not necessarily to be a man (the story of Hatshipsout mentioned as an example of Egyptian woman pharaoh). Anybody who is not familiar with the ancient Egyptian civilization, for sure, will enjoy watching this DVD especially the ancient Egyptians temples and traditions. I do recommend Egypt: the land of gods(History channel) along with this DVD.

you know.......2005-12-11

you know instead of pairing this film up with empires-the greeks you could have paired it up with rome the power and the glory i just wanted to say that before i get down to bussiness. friends,countrymen,amazonians lend me your hands and we shall talk about EGYPT AND IT`S GOLDEN EMPIRE. it`s good but not as good as ROME THE POWER AND THE GLORY OR EMPIRES;THE GREEKS but it is worth four stars. PALS

Good Introductory Material.......2005-06-12

This DVD is a good introduction to the history of Egypt's New Empire period. Most of the interviewed scholars make insightful and accurate commentaries. The two exception I would point out to is when they speak of Pharaoh Akhenaten, of whom they present the conventional, questionable views of a fanatic, incompetent king; and secondly when they refer of the relationship between Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III, attributing to the latter the erasing of the Queen's name and images from certain monuments without having proof of the matter. Other than this are remarkable the many dramatizations and the shots from the monuments, works of art ( most of which are the originals ), and the compelling storytelling of a long history. If you really like Ancient Egypt or would like some nice introductory stuff this is a good choice. But keep learning more and make your own conclusions.

Average customer rating:

Great documentary
Misleading in spots
Great visuals, but music repeats too often...
A chronicle of the first political and economic superpower
Well produced, interesting documentary

Egypt's Golden Empire
Starring: Kent Weeks , John Ray (IV) , Paul Brightwell , Professor Antonio Loprieno , and Nicole Douek
Director: James Hawes , Richard Bradley (II) , and Ciara Byrne
Manufacturer: Pbs (Direct)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( E ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All | PBS | Specialty Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Empires - The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization
Empires - The Roman Empire in the First Century
Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
Empires - Islam: Empire of Faith
National Geographic Video - Egypt Eternal - The Quest for Lost Tombs

ASIN: B00007G1YH
Release Date: 2002-04-16

Description

Part of the Empires series, this film looks at 500 years of Egyptian history, from 1567 BC until 1085 BC. At the beginning of the story, the pyramids were already 1,000 years old; but in the era of the New Kingdom, Egypt would become the most important, the most feared and the most exuberant nation on earth. The series spans from the foundation of the empire to its final collapse and the end of native Egyptian rule and brings to life names that still have legendary status today: Ramses, Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun.

Customer Reviews:

Great documentary.......2005-02-22

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Egypt, I rented thirteen different films about ancient and modern Egypt. This particular entry, from PBS, was my favorite. It was informative, well-produced, and did a great job of covering the sweep of New Kingdom history.

Of all the videos and DVDs I watched, this was the highest quality, and probably the only one I would want to purchase for my own collection.

Misleading in spots.......2004-11-03

This is one of the better Egyptian documentaries, if only because it has a (relatively) narrow topic: the New Kingdom. Many Egyptian documentaries simply cover the famous monuments and people of 3,000+ years; in effect, saying very little and bombarding the market with redundant shows.
There are, however, slight narrative problems with this program. I will highlight one as an example. In part III, which is primarily about Ramses II, the narrative jumps from the death of Tutankhamen to the ascension of Ramses II, presenting a misleading chronology in which it appears that Ramses II actually followed on Tutankhamen. This is hardly the case - four kings came between them (Ay, Horemheb, Ramses I, and Sety I). At the very beginning of Part III, the interviewed scholars note the non-royal background of Ramses. Which Ramses, you ask? That's the problem. Ramses I was in fact non-royal; however, the DVD narrative is actually talking about Ramses II. By the time of the ascension of Ramses II (who was the grandson of Ramses I), Ramses II would actually have been considered royal, since his family had held the throne for three generations by this point (though his family line did not originate as royal blood). Thus, the editing of the DVD has conflated Ramses I, Sety I, and Ramses II, making it seem as though Ramses II began the 19th dynasty directly after Tutankhamen, and completely omitting the last two kings of the 18th dynasty, Ay and Horemheb.
This is the most blatantly misleading issue in the two-hour program, and I cite it as an illustration of the fact that you cannot view these programs as 100% foolproof academia - much is being omitted from history for the sake of convenience and entertainment value.

Great visuals, but music repeats too often..........2004-04-06

A fascinating look at the Egyptian Empire, but there are certainly better ones out there. Some very nice footage, though often shots are repeated, such as running 'couriers.'

A serious con for me was the major overuse of the same 'Last of the Mohicans' theme. It was used over, and over again, often, I found distracting from what I was watching. Perhaps because I'm a soundtrack nut though, the music stuck in my head too much. And there were only three or so pieces of music used overall it sounded like. I think I've heard the Gladiator theme used on another documentary like this as well.

I also found that music was used too often in this documentary. It's important to know when to use music and when not too. Would it have been too much to devote a little more of the budget to getting some different pieces of music created.

Keith David is a great narrator and takes his time, providing a welcome balance to the overused music.

Again, good visuals, informative, and the stories are pretty easy to follow, but with a bit of tweaking, this could have been a really great documentary.

A chronicle of the first political and economic superpower.......2004-03-08

The wealth and power that the Egyptian Empire wielded under the mighty pharaohs is still impressive after three thousand years. The structures that the Egyptians built to honor their leaders and Gods are remarkable feats of engineering achievement. I have seen some of the artwork from that era in museums and they still exude the power of the civilization that created them. Fortunately for us all, many of the events that went into the building and maintenance of the Empire were written down in permanent form and from this tape, we can see how the empire was built, maintained and eventually collapsed.
Like all true empires down through history, the Egyptian Empire was created by conquest. However, what made it an ancestor of the modern superpower was that it was maintained by a combination of force, economics and diplomacy. Messages were exchanged between the pharaohs and the rulers of the neighboring states, and many of them have been preserved. When examined, they reveal a form of diplomatic correspondence quite similar to the forging of modern alliances. With their control of the Nubian gold mines, the Egyptians were able to maintain alliances by shipping gold to their allies.
However, as always seems to be the case, the fall of the Egyptian Empire seems to have been largely due to internal political difficulties. The tales of some of these rulers strike notes of modernity with their actions. Ramesses the Great seems to have been the first ruler to use mass media techniques to forge public opinion into a light favorable to him. Along with the images of him dealing death to his enemies, there are pictures of Ramesses and his Queen playing with their children. In attempts to expand and maintain their political base, the pharaohs altered the worship structure and even built a brand new city for the imperial capital. That city was eventually abandoned in place when a new ruler came to power.
As the narrators repeat many times, the Egyptian Empire was very much a modern state. Giant public works, extensive records of commerce and civil problems, a lengthy diplomatic history, the first recorded strike conducted by workers and even gossip and scandal are found in the records. In the last years of the empire, the workers who were constructing the tombs went long periods without payment and they recorded their frustration on the stone walls of their city. Those records can still be read and they reveal messages that could be plucked from modern newspapers. Men sleeping with the wives of other men, graft and corruption and frustration over low wages are all topics described on the walls.
The empire built by the pharaohs was the first true political and economic superpower to exist in human history. It lasted for nearly five centuries and yet it fell apart rather quickly. It took only a few decades for the records to go from a description of wealth and plenty to one of deprivation and near starvation. In order to survive, the tomb builders became grave robbers, plundering the tombs for the treasures buried with the occupants. What is most telling about these stories is that they are not followed by stories of governmental retribution. This lack of punishment is the strongest indicator of how weak the central government had become.
This tape is a fascinating account of the history of what probably was the most powerful empire before the Christian era and certainly the first modern political state. If you have any interest in ancient Egypt, then you should watch this tape. Some of the "acting" is rather poor, but that is incidental compared to the quality of the history.

Well produced, interesting documentary.......2004-01-22

The "Empires" series on PBS has has several great episodes. This is among the better ones. Egypt's history spans thousands of years, and to make a reasonably-lengthed DVD (and to fit in with the general parameters of the series) this one simply covers the New Kingdom -- a brilliant moment in Egypt's long and glorious history. So while we don't see anything about the pyramids (already a thousand years old by the New Kingdom), we do see some of the most interesting (and popular) characters who lead Egypt at its peak of power... Thutmosis, Hatchepsut, Akhnaten, Rameses II. Nice touches like the inclusion of correspondence bewteen Egyptians and foreign leaders and discussion about the life of commoners helps round things out. All in all, visually interesting, great fun, and lots of good info make this a great documentary. Highly recommended, but those drawn to Egypt by the pyramids or, say, Cleopatra should look into other DVDs.

And I should point out to a previous reviewer that "corn" doesn't just refer to the yellow vegetable we all know and love... the word has long been used to refer to any generic food crop, similar to the word "grain."

DVD:

DVD

DVD: Earthquake/Airport

Friday after next