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Minotaur's Island, The
Acorn Media // Unrated // October 21, 2008
List Price: $24.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
As Bettany Hughes recollects in her documentary, Minotaur's Island, the Minoan culture met their demise much like mist fading into the atmosphere. There wasn't massive violence at play which caused their downfall, but more of a gradual reactionary decline due to the elements that closed a chapter on many hundreds of years of tradesman living that spanned to around roughly 1420 BC. It's possible for a historical documentary to lean on the dry side when discussing the moribund nature of a conflict-less society, but Hughes' Minotaur's Island makes certain to hold onto a stimulating blend between photography, textual information, and theory regarding the precursor civilization to the Mycenaean conquest-focused society.
The Documentary:
Crete sits on the Grecian island cluster's lowest rim, providing a long stretch of mountainous topography ripe for discovery and photography. Bettany Hughes, a renowned lecturer and researcher from Oxford University, has decided to hop on her scooter and take a journey along the path through its numerous Minoan sites and elaborate on their history for Minotaur's Island. She stops at a myriad of points in her robust hour-and-a-half plunge through the Bronze Age Minoans, but the core intrigue comes in her winding presence in Knossos -- a cornerstone site which has been labeled the "minotaur's labyrinth". She makes certain to separate fact from myth, but also provides a bountiful helping of mysticism to fill the gaps left by her unveiling.
The DVD:
Acorn Media bring us The Minotaur's Island in a standard keepcase presentation, offering attractive menu designs that mirror some of the darker colorings from the documentary. A Chapter Selection can help you sift through the material, which is separated by episode for convenience.
Video and Audio Quality:
For a visually gripping documentary, this image isn't anything to really write home about. Presented in 1.53:1 non-anamorphic stature, Minotaur's Island suffers from a overly blurry image -- probably due to the Pal > NTSC transition. Instead of standing strong with detail and beauty across the entire film, it must push through an anti-detail fog during most of the scenic shots to really convey their beauty. Of course, the photography speaks for itself, but it could have looked worlds better. Instead, it allows for the natural beauty to seep through the image and convey its attractiveness.
Matching the serviceability of the visuals, the English Dolby surround track keeps Hughes' vocals relatively clean and clear -- though she gets a little muffled in open environments. There's bits of musical accompaniment during the program, which offer a melodic peacefulness, but it also can cause a little bit of the "trance" effect when paired with the foggy visuals. Still, everything is understandable and works well with the piece. No other language or subtitle options have been made available.
Extras:
Outside of the core feature and a Chapter Selection, we've got a full Bettany Hughes Biography to flip through that regurgitates most of the material available on her website.
-----
Final Thoughts:
Minotaur's Island becomes a 90-minute journey through the Bronze Age Minoan civilization, one rife with a blend of worldly possessions and spirituality amid a blurred political system. Bettany Hughes makes certain to keep the verbal communication lively and engaging, even when the material grows deliberately ornate and expository. Though the content is very good, the lack of digital image quality concentration makes this only a firmly Recommended purchase based on the content alone.
Thomas Spurlin, Staff Reviewer -- DVDTalk Reviews | Personal Blog/Site
The Documentary:
Crete sits on the Grecian island cluster's lowest rim, providing a long stretch of mountainous topography ripe for discovery and photography. Bettany Hughes, a renowned lecturer and researcher from Oxford University, has decided to hop on her scooter and take a journey along the path through its numerous Minoan sites and elaborate on their history for Minotaur's Island. She stops at a myriad of points in her robust hour-and-a-half plunge through the Bronze Age Minoans, but the core intrigue comes in her winding presence in Knossos -- a cornerstone site which has been labeled the "minotaur's labyrinth". She makes certain to separate fact from myth, but also provides a bountiful helping of mysticism to fill the gaps left by her unveiling.
      | Minotaur's Island separates into two 45-minute segments. The first half discusses a good chunk of Crete's -- and Arthur Evans' -- excavation history and early Minoan practice, chronicling their thriving nature society at the peak of their sea-based trading community. Their influence spread beyond their somewhat-confined boundaries on Crete, stretching as far as Old Egypt, which also received some elaboration. The most interesting points of Hughes' context revolve around her exposition of a few myths regarding the Minoans -- as well as introducing the idea that they very well could've been a sacrificial society. She winds in and around the sites, verbalizing the history of tombs, thrones, and other relics that allow insight into the Minoan way of life -- which includes an insight into the multi-god, multi-leader hierarchical structure. In the second half, Hughes reaches deeper into their culture, dissecting their theological, artistic, and other cultural points. She spends extensive time analyzing the nature of their artwork, which ranges from body-sized pottery and wall paintings to surprisingly intricate sculptures. One in particular, the Bull Leaper, opens up some of the potential mythical implications centered around Grecian beliefs regarding the existence of a Minotaur within the labyrinth inside Knossos. Hughes then closes her piece with a discussion on the demise of the Minoans, dipping deep into the effects of existing around an earthquake-ridden terrain -- as well as the idea of literally being washed away by towering tsunamis. Bettay Hughes, a younger, more agile historical correspondent than many, carries a natural knack for charming communication with her audience. Since she's well-versed in lectures, her proficiency in keeping within the boundaries between knowledgeable information and "industry lingo" is quite good. Moreover, she's aware that she carries a natural charisma, which becomes an element that she uses in her movement around the sites -- including hoofing up and down the stairs of Minoan palaces and plunging into the waters near the island for small noteworthy crustaceans -- to draw in attention to her context. But she rarely slumps in her delivery, which helps paint Bettany Hughes as a knowledgeable and accessible historian. Her efforts with Minotaur's Island wouldn't be quite as gripping if they hadn't been filmed in and around Crete's beautiful scenery and excavation sites. Hearing Hughes gab about a finely-crafted, symbolic throne and seeing floating images scroll across the screen would be one thing, but to see her standing right next to the topic of her discussion builds a far richer experience. This occurs several times throughout the documentary, ranging from her examinations on beautiful sculptures of gods and goddesses to simple explanations about relics found around the site -- one artifact, in particular, that offers an interesting discussion about Minoan / Mycenaean written language. Capturing all of this with our narrator in close proximity, most times photographed within the architecture, helps give further consistency and vested interest to Minoan history. Bettany Hughes infuses her focal subject with as much brimming interest as she can in the hour-and-a-half runtime for Minotaur's Island, though it'll still only draw in viewers focused on more methodically-paced explorations on relatively non-violent slices of history. Crete's Minoan history rotates on perseverance and internal development, unlike the battle-ready nature of their predecessor Mycenaean civilization, which might drastically slow the pace in the eyes of conquest-thirsty history buffs. Though the material's rhythm works best as a purposefully-segmented two-part series -- which is the recommended watching span, soaking them in between subsequent days -- the essence of Minotaur's Island speaks with plenty of robustness about this early civilization's efforts at holistic perseverance, societal conglomeration, and peaceful resolve that focuses more on the worldly possessions and textile pleasures from the Bronze Age. It's a deliberately-paced documentary, but there's plenty of exciting antiquity and societal context to take away from Hughes' work. |
The DVD:
Acorn Media bring us The Minotaur's Island in a standard keepcase presentation, offering attractive menu designs that mirror some of the darker colorings from the documentary. A Chapter Selection can help you sift through the material, which is separated by episode for convenience.
Video and Audio Quality:
For a visually gripping documentary, this image isn't anything to really write home about. Presented in 1.53:1 non-anamorphic stature, Minotaur's Island suffers from a overly blurry image -- probably due to the Pal > NTSC transition. Instead of standing strong with detail and beauty across the entire film, it must push through an anti-detail fog during most of the scenic shots to really convey their beauty. Of course, the photography speaks for itself, but it could have looked worlds better. Instead, it allows for the natural beauty to seep through the image and convey its attractiveness.
Matching the serviceability of the visuals, the English Dolby surround track keeps Hughes' vocals relatively clean and clear -- though she gets a little muffled in open environments. There's bits of musical accompaniment during the program, which offer a melodic peacefulness, but it also can cause a little bit of the "trance" effect when paired with the foggy visuals. Still, everything is understandable and works well with the piece. No other language or subtitle options have been made available.
Extras:
Outside of the core feature and a Chapter Selection, we've got a full Bettany Hughes Biography to flip through that regurgitates most of the material available on her website.
-----
Final Thoughts:
Minotaur's Island becomes a 90-minute journey through the Bronze Age Minoan civilization, one rife with a blend of worldly possessions and spirituality amid a blurred political system. Bettany Hughes makes certain to keep the verbal communication lively and engaging, even when the material grows deliberately ornate and expository. Though the content is very good, the lack of digital image quality concentration makes this only a firmly Recommended purchase based on the content alone.
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