Product Description

Darwin's Dangerous Idea: For 21 years, Charles Darwin kept his theory of evolution secret from all but a few friends. He confided to one: "It is like confessing to a murder." His torment resonates in society today in the challenge his incredibly powerful idea poses to our understanding of our world and ourselves. We interweave the drama in key moments of Darwin's life with documentary sequences of current research, linking past to present and introducing major concepts of evolutionary theory. We also explore why Darwin's "dangerous idea" matters perhaps even more today than it did in his own time, and how it conveys the power of science to explain the past and predict the future of life on earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87162 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Soundtrack
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Customer Reviews

The dramatic introduction to the PBS series on "Evolution"
"Evolution" is as much about the profound impact the evolutionary process has had on our understanding of the world around us as it is on the various versions of the theory that have been expounded in scientific textbooks for the past century. The series basically focuses on five key concepts regarding evolution, sandwiched between episodes that constitute a dramatic introduction and a controversial coda.

"Darwin's Dangerous Idea," the first episode in the "Evolution" series, offers dramatizations of key moments in Darwin's life along with contemporary talking heads explaining the profound implications of the evolutionary theory and the place it holds in the scientific community today as a pivotal concept. It takes a while to adjust to the episodic approach of the dramatizations, which come and go without a real sense of regularity, but since they dramatized the famous retort of Huxley to Bishop Wilberforce and other key moments in the popularization of evolution there is a certain effectiveness to it all.

What you get from this episode is a better idea of what the initial complaints were to evolutionary theory and who was making them. In other words, this is more history and politics than science, which is fine, because that allows us to move from what we know about evolution, the controversy, to what we do not understand, the scientific theories covered under that highly charged term. "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" can stand on its own (the first time I caught it on television I did not know it was the introduction to a series), but it really should just whet your appetite for the rest of the episodes.

a great look at Darwin's life and ideas
I thought this documentary was good because it was interesting and informative. It combined reenactments of episodes from Darwin's life with modern-day scientists discussing his theories and their continuing influence. Watching it, one sees that Darwin was not the cold, arrogant scientist that we are sometimes led to believe, but a very compassionate, caring man. I feel that watching this DVD helped me understand evolution better and place it in the context of the author's life.

A documentary about Darwin's life
This is a documentary about the life of Charles Darwin. It details both the content of his ideas and the contrast with religious and scientific norms at the time. This is a movie and not a soundtrack as stated in the title. For those that have Netflix, it is available for rent.