Product Description

Catherine the Great is a colorful, true story about a young girl, who transforms herself from an obscure German Princess into Russia's most powerful regent. As Tsarina, she is influenced by Western Democratic ideas and does much to strengthen Russia's standing in Europe. She has an astute intellect and is able to survive court intrigue to retain her crown.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22479 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2006-05-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 120 minutes

Customer Reviews

WAIT A MOMENT....REVIEW THE RIGHT DVD GUYS!!!
There is OBVIOUSLY some confusion here. Amazon.com has somehow gotten the not-so good Catherine Zeta-Jones series mixed up with the EXCELLENT PBS documentary!!! (This happened once before, see my BURN review for the mix-up in formats on that release.)

If you look at the box, you will see that it is NOT Catherine Zeta-Jones, but EMILY BRUNI (who does a wonderful job as Catherine.) This is the PBS documentary, not the Zeta-Jones series!!! Amazon.com needs to fix the mix-up, or a lot of people will be very confused here. This PBS documentary is EXCELLENT, and Emily Bruni is GREAT. So, if you want to order the PBS documentary, I'd suggest you wait until it's finally released to make sure you get the right one...(I'd be pretty upset if I got Catherine Zeta-Jones instead of Emily Bruni.)

The PBS documentary is wonderful, and Emily Bruni is a seductive, intelligent and fascinating Catherine. As for the Catherine Zeta-Jones version...well...she was good in Chicago...

Once in a while Amazon.com does mix things up, it is rare, but it does happen. So make SURE you are getting the PBS documentary,and not the Catherine-Zeta Jones version.

Amazon needs to check it's Inventory!
This is not the same Catherine the Great featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones. The person in the picture does not even resemble Catherine Zeta-Jones. This version features Emily Bruni as Catherine and is more of a documentary much like Russia: Land of the Tzars. Dispite this mistake in listing this version featuring Emily Bruni is a wonderful peace of work that I think any true lover of Russian history will enjoy.

Be careful about using this one to write your history paper
Not the Zeta-Jones version, but not the best documentary either. For example, during the documentary I kept wondering why Tsar Elizabeth imprisoned her "son" Ivan, naming her childish and unfit-to-rule nephew Peter as her heir. Then she was so anxious for Peter to have an heir that when none appeared after several years of marriage, she encouraged Catherine (Peter's wife) to have an affair with a young officer so she would get pregnant somehow. If Elizabeth was so very anxious for an heir to solidify her dynasty, why did she imprison her own son?

Answer (from further research): Ivan was not Elizabeth's son, but the son of a previous empress. Elizabeth had deposed the child Ivan and his regents in a coup d'etat.

If this documentary can make, and repeatedly mention, an error of such magnitude . . .

Also, the "period" dancing scene often shown to set a mood has absolutely nothing to do with period dances of the time. In general the costuming etc. is not very good.