Product Description

The New York Times called itquite simply, a milestone in programming Now, watch Dr. Jacob Bronowski as he has never been seen before. New video masters have given us the ability to digitally re-master this classic series enabling you to give your students a 21st century viewing experience.

An American Film Festival Award winner, this 13 volume series attempts a massive survey of science, from flint tools to the theory of relativity. The series, a co-production of the BBC and Time-Life Films was made as a science counterpart to Civilization. It is given superb technical support, with two crews using innovative filming techniques, shooting in 27 countries. Dr. Jacob Bronowski, makes for an unorthodox narrator, his non-scripted delivery ranging from hushed awe to trembling passion. He uses the crawling infant, the performing athlete, the development of the hunt and the discovery of fire to illustrate the most distinctive feature of man: imagination.

Programs in the series:
Lower than Angels
Harvest of the Seasons
Grain in the Stone
The Hidden Structure
Music of the Spheres
Starry Messenger
Majestic Clockwork
Drive for Power
Ladder of Creation
World within World
Knowledge or Certainty
Generation upon Generation
Long Childhood

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8029 in DVD
• Brand: Ascent
• Released on: 2007-03-01
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Format: NTSC
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 676 minutes

Review
The series peels back layers of history,invention, science and archaeology to investigate the 'great paradox of the human species'... this 13-title series with stands the test of time and is an excellent resource for high-school and college students. --Booklist

Customer Reviews

second to none
Of the three major British TV series in the past that took a 'big vision' of the development of civilisation in technical and/or intellectual senses: Clarke's 'Civilisation', Bronowski's 'Ascent', and Burke's 'Connections' by far the most conceptually penetrating and diverse was Bronowski's.

I would characterise it like this, with Clarke we get the Aristocrat/Scholar, superb and singular in his erudition and exemplary sensibility, with Burke we get the hip materialist university prof who with wit draws together individuals and science in easy-to-understand argument/narratives that make him look clever. With Bronowski we get depth and intellectual risk taking. I think this has to do with how Bronowski chooses to articulate a sense of oblique contemplation about the events he describes as he explains things - that is for him communicating his points is always tied into synthesising a symbolic language of attributes about humanity's progress with scientific or empirical facts. This comes from a variety of things, Bronowski's early interest in literature (particularly William Blake), his heritage as an eastern European Jew, and his experiences as an assessor of the effects of war both as a scientist and as a Jew.
His book on Blake, although at times meandering and searching, is the most original attempt at contextualising the poet I've ever read - in a way its a critical assessment of Blake and the associative implications of his writing that models Blakean thought to 20thc conclusions as if it were Blake himself writing it.

Bronowski just simply has more depth and a much greater originality of thought and ethical outlook than the other two. He's a real thinker rather than simply an academic and this comes out in his agility with shifting arenas of investigation during the programs.

Put your kids in front of this guy - its the sort of mind our education system should be producing. I certainly would not say that he is a bad presenter, he's just one that demands a different kind of attention than the shlock sound-byte cardboard cut-out presenters you get so much on TV today. You actually have to spend time observing him as he imparts ideas - his mannerisms are crucial to his public performance and if you can find a way to dig it its endlessly inspiring.

Awe-inspiring series at a jaw-dropping price
I can only concur with the many accolades this superb program has received over the years. Viewing it as a teen was a broadening and life-changing experience for me. Through its lens, I became fascinated by the complex interrelationships among many fields of learning and started to view the sciences as both poetry and a grand adventure. I look forward to giving the same experience to my children.

Jacob Bronowski was truly a renaissance man, capable of synthesizing the progress of human understanding and the scientific method into lucid, beautiful essays. "The Ascent of Man" is his magnum opus and, in both written and filmed formats, required reading and viewing for all those who would hope to consider themselves educated. It's not simply a history of scientific thought; it's also a vigorous defense of humanism and a passionate assault on dogma.

That said, the current edition, which I've checked out from the library, looks like it was mastered from mediocre Super8 film. And I'm thoroughly flummoxed by the price. I refuse to pay $130 for a box set of DVDs when the DVD set for Kenneth Clark's "Civilization," a series comparable both in length and in excellence, costs only $55. Why is "The Ascent of Man" available from Amazon.co.uk in Region 2 encoding for only £37? Why overcharge Americans and discourage new generations from exposing themselves to the brilliance of Bronowski?

For that matter, why is Alistair Cooke's wonderful TV series "America" completely unavailable in America yet available in the UK? This makes no sense! Would someone at the BBC get his or her head out of the sand and release these DVDs -- properly remastered, please -- in the US?

Passionate and Powerful (if you don't read the captions)
"The Ascent of Man" has been one of my favorite television experiences since it first appeared. Those early showings, however, were from very poor tapes -- thus my off-the-air copies are really bad. It is a true pleasure to see this program available again and so beautifully remastered; the pictures are sharp, and the colors are true and vibrant.

What strikes me so strongly is Dr. Bronowski's passion for what he is saying, and that he truly believes what he is saying is important even to the survival of civilization. The chapter "Knowledge or Certainty" is the most emotionally-involving essay...to see Dr. Bronowski scoop up mud from the ground at Auschwitz, and to hear him say that the ashes of his family and friends are in that mud is truly heart-rending.

Yes, there's a lot of "talking head" in these videos, the computer graphics (especially the workstation he uses) are outdated (perhaps "quaint" is a better word), the constant use of masculine pronouns sounds wrong to the 21st-century ear, some of the scientific information presented in the series may have been overcome by more recent data, and (by the way) there is some nudity (but absolutely appropriate in context in which it appears), but there hasn't been anything better produced for television (or any media) regarding the history and importance of the social and scientific development of humanity. The simplicity (but still with high production values) of the production only adds to the great impact this program has.

HOWEVER, the captioning is terrible. If one watches these programs with the captions on (which some non-hearing-impaired viewers may find useful, given Dr. Bronowski's fairly distinctive accent), one sees many - MANY ridiculous errors in the captions, and some of these errors change the meaning of what Dr. Bronowski said. It's obvious that whoever wrote the captions and the producers at Ambrose Video who "checked" (if they did that at all) the captions did not refer to the shooting script or even to the book which accompanied the series.

If it weren't for the caption issue, this series would be as close to a perfect presentation as one could imagine. Turn the captions off and become caught up in Dr. Bronowski's knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm. Leave the captions on and be ready to be annoyed (if you don't really need the captions) or to not be given the correct script (if you do need them).