Product Description

Imagine being stranded in the most extreme environments on earth for seven days - completely alone with virtually no supplies. How could you possibly survive? With no support crew and operating the camera himself, survival expert Les Stroud tackles that question as he tests himself in the toughest types of wilderness, ranging from the desert to the Arctic. Among his adventures, he battles life-or-death situations - the aftermath of a winter plane crash, abandoned in the mountains, lost at sea and much more. If you like living on the edge, you can't afford to miss a minute of these nine extended episodes! Disc 1: Arizona Desert Boreal Forest Georgian Swamp Costa Rican Ocean Disc 2: Arctic Mountains Pacific Coast Canyonlands Lost at Sea

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3824 in DVD
• Brand: SOMERSET ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2007-06-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 404 minutes

Customer Reviews

Excellence.
***** This set does not contain "The Making of Survivorman". That extra footage came out after I purchased this DVD. Try Survivorman's website for the latest version. *****

The two colorful DVDs come in a classic plastic container. The picture quality and sound are perfect. Each episode is shown in its entirety and without commercials. It doesn't get any better than this.

Disc One

Desert - Les salvages his broken bicycle after it strands him in the desert. He later uses those parts to aid his situation.

Boreal Forest - Just what it implies. The forest. It's in one of these forest/jungle outings that Les almost amputates his finger when his knife slips.

Swamp - Bullfrogs and turtles are Les's main staple as he builds a raft out of the swamp.

Jungle - At night the jungle floor moves with activity.

Disc Two

Arctic - No food anywhere, except for his pack of seal blubber. Polar bears stalk his sleeping area.

Mountain - Shelter building and fire making at its best.

Winter Plane Crash - My favorite. Les fakes a broken arm to reflect a real plane crash situation. He builds a nice shelter from the busted up airplane, and traps rabbits with a snare.

Canyonlands - The loneliness of the canyons grates on Les's nerves as he smokes out a living quarters and catches small animals for food.

Lost at Sea - Les takes flight in a rubber raft and gets hit by a nasty unexpected storm.

I can't wait to see what Les has planned for Season Two. I'll be the first to buy his DVD.

Terrific show
Terrific show, great DVD. This is a repackaging of the Season One DVD available on Les Stroud's website for $25. It contains the 9 episodes from Season One plus a behind-the-scenes episode.

Years ago when I heard about "Survivor" I thought it would be dumping modern Americans on an island and watching them try to feed themselves. I thought that would be a great show. Instead it was the series of challenges and voting people off the island - not about survival at all.

Les Stroud made my wish come true. He recreates accidents that would leave you stranded in the wilderness, and then uses the items at hand and his wits to survive for seven days. He actually falls out of his canoe and watches it drift away, then he swims to shore, gets out his backpack and sees what he has to survive - in one episode he smashes a video camera and uses the lens to start a fire. He survives the desert, artic, a shipwreck in a raft, the Georgia swamp (he catches and eats a rattlesnake).

He does all his own filming, talking as he goes. This leads to some of the humor in the show - he'll film himself making a slow trek up a steep ridge, and then point out he has to go back down to get his camera - then go up the ridge again.

Some of what he does works well - he catches a snow-shoe hare with a snare, something everyone has heard about but he actually shows you how it works (its not like in the cartoons) but some are flops. He eats plants which make him throw up, and it takes him a LONG time to start some of his fires, with multiple failed attempts. I find it all very interesting.

He has immense patience, and his super-power is to go for five days without eating more than two lizards without complaining.

One last comment - the show invites a comparison to man vs wild, which is much more dramatic and over-the-top and gross - the man vs wild guy drinks by squeezing elephant dung and brown liquid comes out and he swallows that. That guy goes out of his way to face drama - he chooses an escape path over a lava field so you can see his boots smoke, where Les Stroud would walk around it. Plus I can never forget that the man vs wild guy is standing there with a camera crew which has coolers and a truck right there. They are presumably drinking Coke and eating McDonald's while the guy drinks elephant dung juice. Its a stunt. Whereas when Les Stroud found the rattlesnake (he jumped a mile and they had to bleep what he said) if he had gotten bitten he would have had to face it alone.

Les Stroud is very low key and Canadian, and he plays his harmonica to keep his spirits up. He is very likable.

My whole family likes Survivorman. We bought the DVD on his website and were delighted. I recommend it heartily.

Surprisingly entertaining
When I first heard of the show on Discovery Channel, I thought it was another reality show gimick. But the show is actually very entertaining and enlightening. Les Shroud gets dropped off in some remote place with some camera gear and has to survive on his own for 7 days. He really puts you right there with him. The shows are generally about him building a shelter, making a fire and finding food. He uses some random stuff that his production crew has planted in his kit, but otherwise, it's just him and mother nature. Looking forward to Survivorman, season 2.