This DVD is basically 90 minutes of photogravure prints by Curtis taken from his famous book accompanied by splendid Native American music written and performed by Mary Youngblood, Joanne Shenandoah and Lawrence Laughing.

Photogravure is basically a photographic image produced from an engraved copper plate that when finished looks like a golden glowing sepia-toned lithograph. The process in done in three steps: First you take the picture then you produce a transparent glass printing plate of the image and then you printing the image on paper. The process takes a while, is expensive and must be done with care. Nobody did it better or with more purpose than Edward Curtis as is apparent from this DVD.

The entire presentation of the DVD is not unlike something you would see in a museum. Each of the images fade in, are held for a few seconds and then fade out. In most of the shots we simply see the striking photogravures, in others the camera graces an image showing us various aspects of it. And all along the way the music sets a graceful, lively, thoughtful or mysterious ambience.

During his career Curtis photographed more than 80 Native American peoples. The images shown on the DVD include images of Apache, Navajo, Mandan, Sioux, Maricopa, Mojave, Walapai, Ogala and dozens of more peoples. Most of the images are of people in traditional dress rather than modern dress, which is the primary reasons for their controversy. But even if you know that Curtis was manipulating the images and the ethnography a bit the photogravures are still beautiful to behold. Whether or not you want to sit for 90 minutes and watch the entire DVD is up to you. You may just want to watch a chapter or two every so often.

Video:
The DVD is presented in a full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The images are all sepia-toned and show their age well. But, of course, this gives the whole thing an authentic feel. The DVD image is clean and there seems to be very little compression artifact noticeable.

Audio:
The music is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 6 Channel surround and Dolby Digital stereo.

Extras:
There is a brief written text bio of Edward Curtis. The best extra is actually the English captions option which I would highly recommend if you want to know what you are looking at, what peoples are in the photo and what year the photo was taken. It is too bad their is not more about Curtis and the photos. And it would have been helpful to get an inside look at the photogravure process.

Overall:
Legacy: Native American Photogravures & Music is simply 90 minutes of early 20th century photos by Edward S Curtis accompanied by music. If you are a fan of Curtis this is a fine DVD to own. If you are interested in the legends of Native American culture then this is a good addition to whatever books, music or artifacts you have. If you want more information about Curtis I recommend you do an internet search.

It should be noted that the disc has no region coding. It can be played in any DVD player on the planet.