This short, yet information-packed, piece centers mostly on the infamous Mitchell-Hedges skull, the one that purportedly was found in the 1920s in Labanntun in Belize by the British explorer and his adopted daughter, Anna. It is the skull, and the mythos which Anna built up around it during her long (100 year) life, that purportedly inspired George Lucas with the basis for his storyline in the latest Indiana Jones epic. However, the documentary also goes into some detail about several other crystal skulls, including two held by museums in England and France since the late 19th century, as well as one which mysteriously turned up literally on the doorstep of the Smithsonian in 1960.

For years, the skulls held by the British and French museums were believed to be of Aztec or proto-Aztec origin. They ultimately were proven to have come from the collection of Mexican antiquities dealer Eugene Boban, though until recently, their fraudulent nature was only a matter of conjecture. The Smithsonian piece goes into quite a bit of detail with regard to the scientific measures taken to identify these skulls' ages and origins. The 1960 Smithsonian skull, which looks quite a bit different than the others in this documentary (more opaque and less detailed), gets its own little segment, where supermicroscopic images quickly prove that it was machined, probably as recently as the 1950s.

The bulk of the documentary, however, deals with Mitchell-Hedges and his frankly sort of dotty daughter, their various stories about finding the skull (which changed through the intervening decades), and the more recent scientific analyses which again have put the lie to the myth. Anna Mitchell-Hedges comes off as a slightly loony girl who, as her age progressed, probably started believing the story she had been weaving for so many years. This gives an almost comical edge to some brief segments showing various New Age "worshipers" of the skull, not to mention the patently absurd rationalization of the skull's current owner (a late-in-life "companion" of Anna's) who insists the skull's machine-crafted character only proves that it came from aliens.

The Smithsonian does an expert job of tying all these disparate strands together, as well as pointing out the serendipity that sometimes accompanies these investigations, as when one of the investigators stumbled across a 1936 photo of the Mitchell-Hedges skull and quickly determined that the explorer had actually purchased it in a Sotheby's auction. That led to one of Anna Mitchell-Hedges' rapid redeployments of her story, quickly claiming that her father, broke and in debt, had used the skull as collateral and bought it back from the auction house right before it was sold.

All in all, while this may answer none of the lingering questions of the recent Jones film, it provides a fascinating glimpse, with actual real scientific conclusions, into one of the more bizarre sidebars of meso-American history.

The DVD

Video:
Like its cable-kin The History Channel, the Smithsonian, while broadcasting in HD, releases its DVDs in unenhanced 1.78:1 format. Why, I ask? A History Channel director actually emailed me and said they needed to release these to the "lowest common denominator," something I roundly reject. As digital television becomes the standard here in a few months, fewer and fewer people are going to have non-widescreen televisions. It's time to move into the present, let alone the future! OK, rant over. The image, such as it is, is nicely sharp and detailed, with excellent color. There are some archival photos and film elements that have suffered the ravages of time, but everything is eminently watchable.

Sound:
While there are both DD 5.1 and 2.0 mixes available, the soundtrack is virtually all either narration or talking heads, which makes the 5.1 a bit of overkill. Everything is perfectly clear and easy to hear, with excellent fidelity. No subtitles are available.

Extras:
One brief promo for the Smithsonian Channel is included, which I refuse to count as an extra.

Final Thoughts:
This is a fascinating documentary about a really bizarre element of history. Fans of the Indiana Jones film may find it particularly interesting, but for everyone else I still rate this as Recommended.

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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet